How Much Does a Gun Safe Weigh (By Class, With Floor Math)

Gun safe weight by class

Gun safe weight climbs with class, from single pounds to over a thousand. We sorted gun safe sizes into classes; each range comes from the maker or retailer named.

Bands overlap: Cannon’s 59-gun safe sits below Liberty’s mid-range band, so we always check the spec page for the exact model, as Cannon advises.

Why two 24-gun safes can differ by 1,300 lb

Gun safe weight follows steel, fire insulation and door design, not gun count. Liberty names size, steel gauge (lower means thicker), layers of fireboard and extras such as concrete liners. The short video below, which Liberty Safe embeds on its weight page, walks through what adds the pounds.

Our clearest example from the spec sheets:

• Liberty Centurion 24: 375 lb, 14-gauge body, up to 40 minutes at 1200°F by Liberty’s own rating, with no outside lab named.
• AMSEC BFII6636: 1,716 lb for 24 long guns. It has an 11-gauge outer body, a 0.3125-inch inner liner and a 0.5-inch plate door. AMSEC says ETL independently tested its 120-minute rating at 1200°F, and it carries a UL RSC Level II burglary rating.

Our fireproof safe guide explains how to read who certified a rating.

From our notes: When we lined up the spec tables for this guide, we expected weight to track the gun count. It didn’t. The Centurion 24 and the BFII6636 hold the same number of long guns on paper, yet one weighs more than four times the other. The difference sat in lines most buyers skim: steel gauge, an inner liner, a half-inch door plate, and whether a fire rating named a lab. Since then, we read weight as a construction guide, not gun count.

Loaded weight and your floor

The floor carries the safe plus everything in it, concentrated on a small footprint. On FirearmsTalk, one owner’s advice was to “weigh each of your firearms, accessories, and ammo that will be going in there, and add it to the weight of your safe.” Bellewood Designs estimates a full safe at 20-30% over empty.

Now check floor load by footprint. Residential codes commonly use a design live load of 40 pounds per square foot, or 30 in sleeping rooms, per the 2024 IRC loads Pasadena, Texas lists. The empty Centurion 12 puts about 121 lb on each square foot of its footprint; the BFII6636 puts about 264. That design figure is a room average, not a per-spot limit, so we treat these numbers as context for a structural engineer.

Upstairs and apartments

On The High Road, one poster wrote: “Consider what the full of stuff weight will be, and plan accordingly.” Cannon says concrete suits heavy safes and upper floors may need a professional’s evaluation. Sportsman’s Warehouse suggests a spot near a load-bearing wall. Renters should get the landlord’s answer in writing; our apartment gun safe guide covers anchoring in a rental.

Weight on moving day – stairs, doorways and dollies

Every hundred pounds narrows the moving options. Liberty says 98% of its customers choose professional installation, and its dealers may decline risky jobs. Cannon says never to move a gun safe alone, and we agree.

Liberty also lists a minimum doorway: 18 inches for the Centurion 12, 25.75 for the Centurion 32. One owner on The High Road put ordinary appliance dollies near 600 lb, so check yours against the empty weight. Our guide on how to move a gun safe covers stairs, dollies and when to hire a crew.

Heavy is not the same as secure

Weight slows a thief, but anchoring is what stops a carry-off. Liberty warns that a heavy safe with an easy-to-pry door is not more secure. Its dealers bolt each delivered safe down from the inside. We’d bolt it down whatever it weighs (here’s how to bolt down a safe); the 9 lb HDV-150X ships with a security cable.

For a handgun-only setup, see our pistol safe picks, and use our safe buying checklist to weigh size, weight and bolt-down before you buy.