The B&T Impuls IIA came in an HK box and is marked as an HK item. The nylon pouch is nothing tactical, but that’s what came with it, so all-original. (Photo Provided by Author)
April 03, 2025
By Patrick Sweeney
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Sometimes you find out you had a lottery ticket in your pocket all this time. Not the biggest one (or else I’d not be here, writing this) but enough to put a smile on your face. The B&T Impuls IIA here is one such beast.
B&T makes suppressors; we know that. This one is a pistol 9mm suppressor with a booster built into the rear cap. The Impuls IIA is an aluminum tube with stainless steel baffles, and it disassembles for cleaning. (All pistol suppressors must be, or else they stop being effective as suppressors.) The exterior is given a black Cerakote finish, and the end result is supremely durable and manageable. The weight is not out of line with comparable suppressors at three-quarters of a pound. The booster keeps the pistol it is mounted on functioning properly. B&T makes boosters threaded for various thread patterns, and some are even pistol-specific.
(bottom left) The rear cap is threaded for whatever thread pattern the contracting agency requires. Most European ones will be left-hand metric, and any sold here in the USA will be ½-28 thread pitch. (top right) The rear cap holds in the booster. That’s the spring-loaded sliding assembly that is required in order to keep a pistol functioning as a semi-auto pistol. You can see the crenellations on the rear of the suppressor tube. (Photo Provided by Author) B&T lists the reduction of noise as being 31 dB, which means it brings the report of supersonic 9mm ammo down into the tolerable range, and subsonic ammunition into the giggle-worthy range. One interesting detail is built into the booster assembly. The flange of the booster assembly where it locks into the tube is crenellated. That is, it is machined with a gear-like ring around the edge. This gear segment meshes with the similar gear-like arrangement on the back of the suppressor tube. This is the point of impact adjustment system, if you find you need one. If you find that putting the Impuls IIA on your pistol shifts the point of impact, then put the pistol on safe.
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Grab the suppressor tube. Pull it forward (keeping the muzzle in a safe direction and your finger off of the trigger) and give the Impuls IIA a slight twist. Stop the forward push and finish the twist, and it will click into place into the next set of the teeth. Try checking zero again. With a bit of experimentation you’ll find the setting that keeps your pistol and that Impuls IIA both on zero, or as close as the two will ever get. (Which is often very close, if not dead-on) As clever as this system is, it has some limitations.
Whichever setting you find is the setting for your pistol and that Impuls IIA. It might even be ammunition-specific, so if you change loads or brands you might find you have to do it all over again. The process is easy-enough that it isn’t a hassle, or much of one. If you put the Impuls IIA (or any other suppressor with a setup like this) on some other pistol, that combo might need a different setting. It probably will, so keep that in mind with the Impuls IIA or any other booster-equipped pistol that has this arrangement.
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For disassembly in cleaning, you unscrew the booster assembly and extract the baffle stack out the rear of the tube. If you’ve done a bunch of shooting (all raise your hands who are guilty of such a thing), you may have to use a bit of ultrasonic cleaning time to loosen the crud enough to get the stack out. Once loosened, tap the rear of the tube against a soft wood board, and they will slide down enough to be grabbed and removed.
The one sent here came with a metric-threaded rear end cap. So, metric 13.5x1, left-handed. Sigh. However, it arrived with an HK VP9 Tactical, which (unsurprisingly) had its extended barrel threaded metric 13.5x1 left-hand. Testing, blasting, fun and games, and then off the VP9 Tactical went back to HK. That was a while ago.
In contacting B&T for some info, I happened to mention this, and the reaction was, “You lucky dog.” Okay, a bit of background. European firearms manufacturers are really strict. If you send in a firearm for a warranty repair, and it had been used with a suppressor on it, and the suppressor isn’t one of an approved makers, from an approved list, your warranty repair will be denied. You’ll have to pay for fixing it. On the list? B&T. On the approved model list? Impuls IIA.
While the Impuls IIA is marked as having been made by B&T, it is also marked as something that went through the HK inventory system, because, well, there’s the markings. (Photo Provided by Author) When you order your firearm in Europe (personally or as an agency) if you want it with a suppressor, it will be marked as the firearms maker’s model. Apparently, warranties in Europe are held to a much higher standard than over here. (I suspect the use of reloaded ammunition voids most, if not all, warranties by European standards. Too bad, EU, that’s what Americans do.) This also explains the various boosters and thread patterns: American, European, pistol-specific. B&T also makes model-specific ones, just in case some agency requests boosters for using the Impuls IIA in their-issued compact Glock instead of on a full-sized G17.
Such contracts will be very specific; a particular pistol, with a stated barrel length and thread pattern, to be fed a specific, issued, 9mm ammunition, and the full ensemble must be absolutely 100% reliable, or no-go. The winning bid will supply the stated suppressor marked in such a manner as is required by the contract, which is how to say I now have in the safe a B&T Impuls IIA with HK logo on it, in the original HK box. Woo-hoo! HK collectors be envious. The box contains some Styrofoam-like spacers to fill the box, and the Impuls IIA is in a nylon pouch for storage and transport. It also means I will now have to reach out to B&T for a ½-28 threaded booster, since the number of firearms I have threaded M13.5-1LH is exactly two. Well, one extra barrel for a Beretta 92/M9 (no idea how that ended up here), and a SIG MPX, which doesn’t need a booster.
If you order a B&T Impuls IIA (a wise choice, by the way) you’ll be able to specify a good old American ½-28 booster for ours. But it will be marked as a B&T Impuls IIA, no HK markings on yours. Sorry about that, it was my lottery ticket after all.
B&T IMPULS IIA SUPPRESSOR SPECS OAL: 7.8 in.Net Added Length: 7.3 in.Diameter: 1.4 in.Material: Aluminum, stainless steelWeight: 12 oz.Finish: Black CerakoteCalibers Available: 9mmFull-Auto Rated: N/AMount System Available: Direct thread, ½-28 or M13.5x1-LHMSRP: $900Contact: B-Tusa.com
