B&T VP9 Veterinary Pistol.

B&T has recognized the need for law enforcement, veterinary services and hunters to have a very quiet single shot pistol for use when putting down injured animals and wounded game. It is commonly understood that an injured animal is the most dangerous animal and thus is very risky to get close to. There have been many cases of injured animals panicking and attacking humans. On the other hand one does not want to have the noise of gunfire disturbing the environment and bystanders, especially in urban areas. That is why B&T has designed the VP9. In most cases a pistol was designed and the suppressor was considered only as an afterthought. In this case however, both gun and suppressor were developed simultaneously to produce the most quite 9mm pistol in the world today. The VP9 comes with two suppressors. One made of alloy for training and a second with replaceable baffles for field use. Along the 50 cm barrel a number of holes have been drilled permitting the gases to escape into the expansion chamber. This will release the gases so that the round that is being fired never reaches supersonic speed even with standard FMJ ammunition. There is so little gas exiting the field suppressor that there is actually a quick jet-type sound as the trapped gases are released when working the action. It is almost like a trademark of sound… This produces a noise level as low as 129 dB A using standard 124 gr. FMJ ammunition. This reduction can be further decreased as much as 4 dB A by using subsonic ammunition. This noise is about the same as a car door closing. This sound level will not cause any undue stress on the environment or among the general public. There is no supersonic crack. After firing the first shot the operator then uses the support hand to manually manipulate the bolt behind the suppressor. The gun is so quiet in fact that the noise of the bolt being unlocked and cycled actually makes more noise that the bullet being fired. It is a hand operated device which some people have compared it to a bolt action. Another interesting point is that since the projectile leaves the barrel and the suppressor at subsonic velocity the penetration is much less than that of a supersonic round thus minimizing the chance of a ricochet or stray round going off in an unintended direction.