.25 Creedmoor vs. .25 RPM: Which Quarter-bore Reigns Supreme?

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The timing was just too good. With no high-BC factory hunting cartridges available in .25 caliber, the team at Hornady took it upon themselves to introduce the world to the .25 Creedmoor in April of 2025. Recently, Weatherby jumped on board the high-BC .25 bandwagon with the release of the .25 RPM. For over a decade hunters had complained that there was no quarter bore factory load capable of pushing heavy-for-caliber bullets, and over the last twelve months we’ve seen not one but two new heavy .25s.

That’s great news for shooters and hunters, especially fans of cartridges like the .257 Weatherby Magnum and the .25-06. For years these two cartridges maintained a relatively small but loyal following, and the advent of the .25 Creedmoor and .25 RPM has reignited interest in .25 caliber cartridges. (Is long-range hunting ethical?)

The .25 Creedmoor and .25 RPM are quite different cartridges, though, and it’s worth taking a closer look at each of these rounds to see what they have to offer hunters and shooters.

The .25 Creedmoor: Natural Selection

We had .22, .24, and .26 caliber Creedmoor cartridges, so it seemed inevitable that a factory .25 Creedmoor would be offered. For years shooters were building custom .25 Creedmoor rifles with fast twist rates and chambering them for the wildcat .25 Creedmoor, but Hornady legitimized the cartridge and now offers .25 Creedmoor factory ammunition. With official SAAMi acceptance the .25 Creedmoor became the first low-drag .257 offering.

Before you dismiss the .25 Creedmoor as a new method to sell ammunition, consider that the .25 Creedmoor offers very real advantages over its 6mm and 6.5 mm cousins. For starters, the 128-grain ELD-X bullet used in Hornady’s .25 Creedmoor Precision Hunter load has a G1 ballistic coefficient of .633—higher than the 103-grain 6mm Creedmoor ELD-X (.512 G1 BC) and the 6.5 Creedmoor (.623 G1 BC). The .25 Creedmoor has a muzzle velocity of 2,850 fps, faster than the 6.5 Creedmoor ELD-X load that manages 2,700 fps at the muzzle with a 143-grain bullet. The .25 Creedmoor beats the 6mm Creedmoor’s muzzle energy figures by about 180 foot-pounds at the muzzle, and while the 128-grain .25 Creedmoor doesn’t produce quite as much muzzle energy as the 143-grain 6.5 Creedmoor (2,308 and 2,315 foot-pounds, respectively). The 25 soon surpasses the 6.5 in terms of energy, and it does so with less recoil.

It’s entirely possible that the .25 Creedmoor is the most ballistically balanced of these three cartridges, and it’s a great option for both target shooters and hunters. The cartridge’s overall length of 2.800-inches means that it will work in short-action rifles with AICS magazines, and the .25’s recoil is extremely mild. It doesn’t require a lot of barrel length to reach full velocity and therefore is suitable for 20 and 22-inch barrels that work well with suppressors while hunting.

Hornady offered a range of ammo options for the quarter-bore Creedmoor right out of the gate including the 128-grain ELD-X load at 2,850, a 134-grain ELD Match load at 2,800 fps, a 112-grain Superformance monolithic CX bullet at 3,150, and a V-Match 95-grain ELD-VT load at 3,250. That covers large game, small game and varmints, hunting in lead-free zones, and target shooting—all from a single rifle.

The .25 RPM: Speeding Things Up

This should come as no surprise, but the folks at Weatherby decided to speed things up with their new .25 RPM. Weatherby has been synonymous with the .25s as far back as 1949 when Roy Weatherby necked down the .300 H&H Magnum case to create the ultra-powerful .257 Weatherby Magnum. To drive home the potential of ultra-velocity cartridges Roy apparently killed a cape buffalo with the .257. (What is meant by "hitting power?")

The new .25 RPM is part of Weatherby’s Rebated Precision Magnum line of cartridges, joining the existing 6.5 RPM and .338 RPM, and like those cartridges the case is based on a modified .284 Winchester cartridge. The genesis of the RPM family was Weatherby’s decision to create cartridges around their Mark V six-lug action. For decades the Mark V rifle has been available in two basic variants: the larger nine-lug action that supports the company’s most powerful cartridges like the .300, .340, .378, and other large Weatherby Magnums while the trimmer, lighter six-lug action was suitable for rounds like the .240 Weatherby Magnum. By using the rebated case, Weatherby could develop cartridges suited for the lighter six-lug action, and that’s exactly what they did.

The 6.5 RPM can be chambered in Weatherby’s current line of six-lug Mark Vs but it also works in the company’s new Model 307 rifle. The 6.5 RPM case features a 35-degree shoulder angle and minimal body taper. Cartridge overall length is set at 3.34-inches so it’s not a short action cartridge like the .25 Creedmoor, but like the Creedmoor, the .25 RPM is designed to accommodate heavy-for-caliber, high BC .257-inch bullets. Weatherby’s current .25 RPM ammo lineup includes a 117-grain Barnes LRX load with a muzzle velocity of 3,150 fps, a 133-grain Berger Elite Hunter load at 3,000 fps, a 107-grain Hammer Custom bullet at 3,350 fps, and a Hornady SST 117-grain load at 3,150 fps.

How the .25 Creedmoor and .25 RPM Stack Up

The advent of a pair of new low-drag .25 cartridge options is exciting for hunters and shooters, but which one of these two cartridges is right for you?

Let’s start by examining cartridge overall length. At 2.800 the Creedmoor is certainly the shorter of the two, and as such it can be built in lighter rifles. It’s also advantageous for Creedmoor shooters that this cartridge works in widely available AICS magazines. The .25 Creedmoor also produces very mild recoil, generating even less setback than the soft-shooting 6.5 Creedmoor.

Weatherby didn’t set out to build the softest-shooting, low-drag .25, but rather the fastest one—and they succeeded. The .25 RPM manages 3,350 with the 107-grain Hammer bullet, which is 100 feet per second faster than Hornady’s 95-grain ELD-VT .25 Creedmoor load. While Hornady’s 134-grain ELD Match load manages an impressive 2,800 fps the .25 RPM 133-grain Berger load achieves 3,000 fps. The RPM is the faster of the two cartridges for sure.

High BC bullets allow the RPM to retain that velocity, too. At 500 yards the 133-grain Berger holds onto 2,261 fps compared to 2,135 for the .25 Creedmoor ELD-X. At that distance the RPM load holds onto 1,509 foot-pounds of energy compared to 1,356 for the .25 RPM load.

So you get a boost in velocity, energy, and a slightly flatter trajectory with the RPM. Is it worth it? That depends on the situation. The extra 100 fps or so of velocity may allow a bullet to expand properly that wouldn’t with the Creedmoor, and that bullet will certainly have more energy when it arrives when fired from the .25 RPM. In real-world terms the performance of both cartridges is very close. For big-bodied game like elk the .25 RPM has a numbers advantage, and it shoots a bit flatter in open country.

The Weatherby’s velocity and energy comes at a price, though. At retail you can expect to pay between $4 and $5 a round for the Weatherby ammunition or even more, but the Creedmoor will cost you between $2 and $3 a round—no small consideration when you’re shooting hundreds of rounds. In terms of rifle availability, the Creedmoor wins simply because of how many companies offer guns, a list that includes Howa, Seekins, HS Precision, Christiansen Arms, and even Weatherby. Weatherby is the only company currently offering .25 RPM rifles, but they do have a long list of guns available in both their Mark V and Model 307 lines.

Testing Both Rifles

I had the opportunity to test Weatherby’s Alpine ST .25 RPM ($1,999) alongside Horizon’s Venatic 2 in .25 Creedmoor ($3,799), both of which were excellent rifles. Both guns came with 22-inch barrels with muzzle brakes, and both barrels featured a 1:7.5 twist barrel to stabilize long, heavy-for-caliber .257-inch bullets.

The .25 RPM certainly is the faster of the two. Velocities with the 107-grain Hammer HCB load averaged right at 3,300 on my Garmin Xero C2. The 117-grain SST .25 RPM load managed 3,089 fps on average while the 133-grain Berger Elite Hunter .25 RPM load averaged 2,924. That means all of these are faster than the .25 Creedmoor 128-grain ELD-X load which averaged 2,838 for 10 shots.

Not surprisingly, though,, the .25 Creedmoor did produce less recoil and muzzle blast and the 128-grain ELD-X bullet has a higher G1 ballistic coefficient than the 133-grain Berger Elite from the .25 RPM (.613 and .633, respectively). Accuracy with both rifles proved to be very good. The .25 Creedmoor produced smaller groups on average, but it was also being fired in a premium rifle that costs nearly twice what the Alpine SLT does. Both rifles managed groups under one inch on average.

So, which of the new .25 cartridges is right for you? That depends on what you’re searching for. If you need maximum speed and power then the .25 RPM is the answer, but that speed and power come at increased ammo costs and more recoil and muzzle blast. However, neither of these rounds is abusive or uncomfortable to shoot and with some practice I feel that either one will work for most hunters. If I were going to spend all day at the range shooting targets at extended ranges I’d opt for the .25 Creedmoor, and the Creedmoor will accomplish most of what you can do with the .25 RPM. If I were hunting wide-open country and knew I’d have to make long shots on antelope, whitetail and mule deer, and perhaps even sheep, I’d lean toward the .25 RPM.

The good news is that both of these cartridges perform well. A year ago there weren’t any options for high-BC factory .25 ammo, and now we have two solid choices. Time will tell which of these becomes the new king of the quarter-bores.

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