You don't need custom guns. In fact, most home made guns don't work as well as the ones you get from BC. Any guns that work BETTER then those people generally only make for themselves.
If you know what you are doing you can rather easly do beter than any mass produced types. (no offence to anyone that builds and sells the stuff) Mass produced cannon cannot compare to the power, rate of fire or reaibilty of well built gun. The produceres of these cannons cannot devote enought time to make sure each is perfect, because it would drive the cost up out of sight. For rookies mass produced guns are great. They work. But to become a good captain you have to build you own. So buy your 1st set of cannons. Then for that 2nd boat, find someone to show you how to build real guns.
OK: I have my first comerical cannon. UGH! it does not fit in the Mogador! Looks like I am on to building my own.
If the hobby grows enough to the point of being able to support the mass production of precisely-made sliding breech cannons, the average quality of commercial cannons will be likely to quickly rise well above where it is now.
Are we talking big gun cannons or small gun cannons? I thought that the quality from the small gun vendors was good. If it works as adverised out of the box without hours and hours of tweaking and swearing I think they've got a winner. I agree that holding tight tolerances on multiple parts can be an issue... esp. with manual machines. Seems though that cnc desktops are commonly accessible however. Their problem is that the small table size and travel doesn't lend itself to making many 4 inch magazines at a time There was a design causing a stir some years back on the big gun side of things. Jason Annen I believe worked up a 4 barrel fixed tray magazine for Mogodor or similar ship. I have heard mentioned that due to plenum effects that one accumulator and 4 barrels in two sets can cause problems. I worked with some air systems, for groundwater remediation of all things, and they had to be timed to work at the same time by having all the hoses to every well (sometimes 4 or more) to be the same length... It was a pain, there were hundreds of feet involved. But, that may explain the reason for one set to hit hard, and the other to not. it could be the bb's are leaving early in the first, and late in the second. This would mean all the pressure preferentially then flows out the open holes. Perhaps a set screw as wide as the air channel added to the hard side could be added, to reduce the airflow and "time" tune the bb's back into better trim. This cannon design, a bb 2x2 fixed square mag, I think has real potential for budget boats in big gun. I think it'll still stink for mwc, treaty, and IIRC. Mike Horne
I will let you know got a cannon set from Battlers it appeared to be built to order I have no fear I believe it will be just as good as custom let you know after NATS
All the BC's are built and tested before they are shipped, so it should work great right out of the box.
Certainly BC cannons work. But the issue is that it is possible to build something that works better. And fits better too. Check inside the boat of someone really good. You will find cannons they built.
