That is the right question to ask.

The 338 ARC is an extremely specialized cartridge designed to fix what is wrong with current subsonic

offerings. Read on to see if this new cartridge would be a waste of your money, or the perfect solution to what's missing in your rifle bag.

Here are the key questions you should ask:

1. Will I use a suppressor?
2. Will I shoot lots of hogs?
3. Would a nearly silent 307 grain bullet, with enough energy to effectively kill hogs out to 100 yards come in handy?
4. Would a 170 grain supersonic round with over 1600 foot pounds of energy and a good trajectory out to 200 yards, that is pretty quite suppressed, help me with deer and varmint management?
5. Would a short, compact rifle with this capability be great to have in my truck or ATV?

If you answered, “no”, to most of these questions, our Specter rifle in 338 ARC will not be of much use to you and there is no need to read further.

But, if you answered. “Yes”, to all or most of these questions, you have just found the best rifle solution possible to fill those needs. So, read on!

The Cartridge:

According to a recent article in Shooting Times, by Joseph Von Benedikt, Hornady started developing the 338 ARC in 2017.  They have spent a lot of time perfecting the bullets to make certain the 307 grain projectile delivers both penetration and expansion at subsonic velocities.

The 307 grain Sub-X delivered an impressive 16” of penetration in ballistic gelatin tests.  The bullet also demonstrated excellent expansion characteristics, expanding to two times its .338” diameter.

In a nutshell, with a larger bullet diameter and 752 fit-lbs. of  energy, it hits much harder than

a 300 Blackout.

Now, look at the supersonic 170 grain HP load.  At 2075 fps and over 1650 ft-lbs., this is a very useful round for hog, varmint, and deer management out to 250 yards.  While not nearly as quiet as the subsonic ammo, this load is still pretty quiet suppressed and there is very little recoil.

Combined with a turreted scope, such as the Swarovski Z5+i 2-10X42 or 3.5-18X50, you can easily move the turret to switch between supersonic and subsonic zeroes.

We normally set the turret up for a 100 yard zero with the supersonic 170 grain load, with additional markers for 150 and 200 yards.  You can also dial to a 50 and 100 yard zero mark for the subsonic ammo on the same turret.  

So, you can quickly and easily switch between the subsonic and supersonic loads just by moving the turret to the appropriate marker.

If you have not already seen it, check out our video on the Specter 338 ARC with Swarovski Z5+i scope where we demonstrate how well this works.

At the time of this post, we still have a few of our limited edition, Specter Works 338 ARC rifles available.  We have also added this exciting new cartridge to our Pathfinder rifle line up should you prefer a more traditional rifle design.

If you think this cartridge would serve you well, just let us know which product you want to order!