I guess I didn't draw a very clear word picture. When I was gunned I was not straight and level, I was in approx 125 degrees of left bank slicing down toward the bandit. I was moving my N17 around the sky the entire time. Like Nefaro these gunners are cleaning my clock.

[Edit: the following observation uses the word "you" in the generic sense and not one individual. It is meant to convey the basics of a RL guns jink and not a criticism of an individual's techniques. I apologize to Wolfstriked for the confusion.]

And if I may offer an observation. A common error of RL fighter pilots learning to perform their gun defense AKA their "guns jink" is not allowing enough time for their airplane to move in one plane of motion before trying a different move. Think of it this way. If you rapidly try to dive then climb and then dive in a second, you are simply "stirring the stick" as we'd say. You think you're making yourself a difficult target, but really the airplane hasn't traveled very far through the air. Viewed from the attackers cockpit, your airplane might be rotating about an axis, but it remains in the same relative position. At a nominal 100 MPH in a WWI fighter in a turning fight, you're only traveling about 150 FPS (just using round numbers). Rapidly pumping the stick 3 times a second might displace you 50 feet out of plane. The take away...or not....when performing your guns defense set and hold the stick for "one or two potatoes" before going to your next move. That worked really well in the Phantom and the Viper, of course YMMV.