I realize that if you don't have something nice or useful to say, you shouldn't say anything at all, however I guess I'm just a jerk so having followed this thread for about two weeks I'd like to toss my 2c in.
First off, I was genuinely considering a Redwolf. It definitely seems like my style of gun. Ultimately though I went with the Crown because the closed-source programmer and its cost really torqued my nuts. It'd have been trivial to make it a system which works via micro USB or even bluetooth to reduce tuning cost/difficulty. Even better it could be done open-source so that other airgunners could add to the code base and make even more effective software. You know how painstaking it is to, setting by setting, tweak and test things and shoot ladder groups to find your barrel's harmonics and all? How about software that engages a testing mode, and you simply shoot groups of a set round count and each has a different protocol for tweaking? This is what open source, and the massive brain-trust of the internet could have brought to the product. So that is why I went with the Crown, this closed-down attitude from Daystate. And I want to quote this:
Thanks Simon,
As AGN readers probably know we are not as manufacturers allowed to post in the normal forum area, but as nobody has posted this inquiry in the dealer area, we are breaking the rules for once to post this reply - sorry Michael!, please put your questions to manufacturers where we are allowed to answer them.
The huge majority of our customers use the magazines on their Daystate rifles without issue, I had a quick look and since we started making the detachable magazine in 2002 the company has made nearly 300,000 of them, quite a number! Clearly it can go wrong sometimes and we’re sorry to hear that this has happened to some on here. Daystate and its USA agent AofA want to help. We invite people who need help and or advise to send us an email to us at
[email protected] entitled ‘Magazine’. Don’t forget to tell us the rifle you are using and its caliber. We will forward the email to the support staff in the correct country (AGN has many readers outside the US) and respond accordingly.
all the best
Tony
This thread with its magazine problem, and this attitude towards the issue, makes me very happy I didn't buy a Daystate. I think part of why FX gets away with so many of their trespasses is because their attitude isn't "well we've made hundreds of thousands of them for years, so it isn't really a problem" but instead "we're going to constantly fight to change and improve things. Just my thoughts on the subject. If I had paid that much for a rifle, particularly given the rest of the market for top-of-the-line rifles, I'd be thoroughly hacked off. Hell I've clearly had a nerve twisted here and I'm only reading about it happening to other people. And as far as Daystate not knowing about the issue, claim whatever you like, but to my eyes magazines are a MAJOR advantage in speed shooting even if loading them counts against your time. It didn't go unnoticed that at Extreme Benchrest the DAYSTATE SPONSORED TEAM single-loaded.
So my apologies. I shouldn't light up a manufacturer especially when they did take the time to come to the forum and post. I would like to offer what little help I can though. I understand Daystate magazines are incredibly expensive, 100$ a pop it looks like. For that price, I would expect the precision of manufacturing and quality control would mean that, while mistakes happen, nobody would have multiple defective magazines. This thread seems to suggest otherwise, in a big way.
I would like to make a free open-source magazine design for the Daystate guns. I don't know exactly how they work internally, but I would expect they are not that complicated as they certainly look simple externally. The goal is not a direct copy of a Daystate magazine, but a design improvement. If someone is willing to send me a magazine, I will do my best to design a new magazine which omits the bolt hold feature and which hopefully fixes the fliers. I'll publish the designs for free to download so all Daystate users can benefit, and anyone can 3D print them out. I will need some help from Daystate owners to test the mags out and make sure they fit and function, since I can't ask someone to borrow a RW to do the full development cycle myself. I don't know by what mechanism the Daystate magazines operate, however I would expect that at bare minimum a "standard" FX/Marauder/etc rotary style coil spring magazine like I designed to fix the fliers on my FX could be used.
hopefully they can test a bit and this will get sorted