[Willie Lowman]

I recently fired my .44 magnum inside my barn. I had ear muffs on but the blast temporarily deafened me. I had a radio playing and after I shot I couldn't hear the music. Then the sound slowly came back as if someone was slowly turning up the volume.

Got me wondering if there is a relation between chamber pressure and muzzle blast/noise/report?

9mm is listed as having a max pressure of 35000 and 38000 for +p
40 is also 35000
38 special is a lowly 17500 and +p is 20000
357 mag is also surprisingly listed at 35000
357 Sig comes in at 44000
45 ACP is only 21000
And the 44 mag is 36000, also surprisingly.

If these numbers are off, forgive me, I pulled them from google.


I also googled the muzzle blast in decibels for each and they were all listed at 160, give or take a decibel.


But here's the kicker, 357 magnum certainly seems louder to me than my 9mm.

When I fired that 44 mag indoors, even with hearing pro on, I couldn't hear anything for 3 to 5 seconds after the shot. After that I am not going to take my pistol collection into the barn and shoot them all to see if the results are the same.