micky wrote:
OT Are gun silencers on pistols really as effective as they show in
the movies? What about the breech? Does a lot of the noise come
from there?

And what about the muzzle? Doesn't the bullet make a hole in whatever
is in the silencer, so the noise can follow the bullet out the hole?
After all, the walls on the barrel are pretty strong, so the noise
without a silencer must come out the mouth of the barrel. Why not out
the mouth of the silencer, at least after it's been used a couple
times?

I've fired a pistol, without a silencer, and didn't or couldn't
notice these things.

Since you asked,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppressor