42-pounders as a supply problem

Was excessive weight the main reason the Royal Navy moved away from the 42-pounder?

Supply appears at least as important: 42-pounders were harder to cast, made in lower volume, and less reliably available than 32-pounders.

The question challenges the simple claim that the Royal Navy abandoned 42-pounders because they were too heavy. Repeated references in the source point instead to a supply problem: the guns were harder to cast and difficult to deliver in reliable quantities even to first rates. Manufacturers produced fewer of them than the widely used 32-pounder, so they lacked the same economies of volume and ready stock. A weapon that could not be supplied consistently to the ships most likely to carry it was an unattractive standard for the rest of the fleet. Armament choice depended on industrial and logistical constraints as much as the weight a ship could carry.