New guns and gear often comes as great surprise at the start of each new year, and your American Rifleman staff indefatigably search to report on the most exciting new guns and gear offerings from the industry. For 2025, we've reported on new handguns, rifles and shotguns, but without ammunition, what are good are new guns? And it appears the makers at Hornady, Nosler and Remington have been working hard behind the scenes to present a few new products for the year. Here they are:
Hornady 338 ARC
Hornady has expanded its cutting-edge Advanced Rifle Cartridge (ARC) lineup to include the new 338 ARC. In development since 2017, it’s optimized for subsonic performance from AR-15 platforms. Because this chambering uses the same parent case as the 6 mm and 22 ARCs, it’s compatible with the same bolt face size (Type 2 Grendel) and AR magazines. With an overall length of 2.260" it is also suitable for mini and short-action bolt gun actions. This cartridge addresses the limitations of some other popular subsonic rifle rounds—the 307-grain Sub-X bullet delivers 1.5X the energy of a standard .300 Blackout. The powder charge is engineered to burn cleanly and provide consistent pressure levels for improved accuracy. And, best of all, both the subsonic load and the supersonic 175-grain jacketed-hollow-point round will cycle reliably in an AR-15 without adjustments to the gas system, whether a sound suppressor is being used or not. —B. Gil Horman, Field Editor
Nosler Whitetail Country
Nosler knows precision—from rifles to reloading components to ammunition. We all love our ammunition to be accurate, but when we take it hunting, the ability to make quick and humane kills is of equal importance. These two needs are addressed in the new Nosler Whitetail Country line. Whitetail Country cartridges are offered in two styles. Bottlenecked examples use Nosler’s fifth-generation Solid Base bullets, with a tapered jacket and boattail profile, designed for accuracy, penetration and expansion at longer ranges. The Straight-Wall bullet used in straight-wall cartridges is optimized for reliable feeding and consistent expansion, even when velocities drop at extended ranges. Whitetail Country offerings include classic and modern deer cartridges—6.5 mm Creedmoor, .270 Win., 7 mm-08 Rem., .30-30 Win., .308 Win., .30-’06 Sprg., .350 Legend and .45-70 Gov’t. —Jeremiah Knupp, Field Editor
Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Lever Gun
Remington Ammunition introduced its Core-Lokt Tipped (CLT) projectile in 2022 to provide better ballistics while retaining the impressive expansion characteristics that have long been a hallmark of the Core-Lokt design. Now, for 2025, Big Green is expanding its CLT design into a dedicated line for lever-action rifles, with blunt-tipped projectiles that are safe to load in the under-barrel tubular magazines commonly used on lever guns. CLT Lever Gun debuted with a 180-grain load for 360 Buckhammer, but that will soon be joined by options in .30-30 Win., .35 Rem., .45-70 Gov’t., .444 Marlin and .32 Win. Spl., giving owners the opportunity to feed a slate of classic lever-actions. Bullet weights will mirror Remington’s offerings in its extant soft-point line, ensuring that ballistic profiles remain similar across several ammunition types. —Evan Brune, Executive Editor
