I enjoy cleaning my guns. After a shooting session I will take all the guns shot and sit down with a cold beer and good music and get to cleaning. It’s therapeutic.

Depends upon the gun for me as well.

If it's a range toy that I won't shoot very often, I clean it after every trip.

If it's a gun that I'll shoot a lot, like my EDC and backup G23s, I wait until about 800-1000 rounds these days. I've gone as long at 2800 rounds where the darn things just kept going and going. Guilt is usually the instigator for breaking out the cleaning tools.

Certain range guns that I shoot often but I'm not all-in, wholeheartedly trusting of like my P229 TALO or M9A3, I will generally clean at around 400 to 500 rounds. Unless I forget.

Rimfires I will typically clean after every range session. Black rifle I will most of the time clean after every session, unless it's a piston. Then it's "whenever".

I've developed an attitude when it comes to believing that people clean their guns too often.

I used to love cleaning. Now its becoming a chore.

Still, cleaning guns is when I get to inspect for chipped extractors or broken parts. I have found a lot of issues over the years, by simply cleaning and inspecting. If I never cleaned it, I never would have found the issue.

Carry and self defense guns will absolutely be cleaned, lubricated, AND inspected after every time they are fired. plinkers or .22LR guns get cleaned occasionally. If I feel like it.

After every shooting. Usually within 24 hours. Now with a kid early on that may have stretched out a couple or three weeks but still after every use.

Now I don’t brush the bejezzus out of a barrel, usually just patches and ballistol but it gets field stripped, cleaned, lubed and function checked after every use.

Carry guns NEVER get put away without an exterior wipe down. So in many cases daily.

Never an issue with rust and a clean well oiled gun seems to be a happy Gun for me.

Like some have said, I used to enjoy cleaning. It was sort of therapeutic was just part of the trip to the range.

I know, or have seen people with more guns, mostly pistol, than I could count. There was a couple on Smith & Wesson forum that had a large safe or two full of S&W revolvers, just chock full.

I can't imagine cleaning every one of them every few months if they have just sat in the safe, but, like some have indirectly indicated, it makes me uncomfortable for them to stay dirty for long, or go without inspection if they have not been shot.

I have seen too many guns that have been damaged by neglect. On the other hand, I'm less enthusiastic about cleaning every single range trip like I used to. I also used to enjoy cleaning, now, not quite so much.

After shooting 100 rounds or more through them, but not necessarily right away. Cleaning anything, for me, is a chore, not something I gain enjoyment from. I'm thinking about cleaning the .22 pistol I shot two weeks ago. More important than perfectly clean is lubrication. I check this on carry guns every couple of weeks.

quote:

Originally posted by grumpy1:
Maybe every 3-5 range trips, which would be around 500 rounds fired max, but I do wipe the exterior metal down with a cotton cloth lightly moist with Breakfree CLP after each range trip/handling. Even when I do clean them they are not that dirty, other than the bore and breech face, and I can just wipe off any crud. I may also pull the slide off the frame to check lube before a range trip and if necessary add a little lube to the slide rails and frame rails/steel tabs.

+1 - This is pretty much my cleaning routine. I use to be a "after every range trip" guy. No so anymore. I use to like to do it, but now it is more like a chore. Not sure when it changed for me. Just seems like I have more to do now and I don't have the time to do it. I am hoping I get back in the mode of loving to do it one day.

Without fail within 24 hours of firing.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick_Perry:

quote:

Originally posted by grumpy1:
Maybe every 3-5 range trips, which would be around 500 rounds fired max,
<snip> I may also pull the slide off the frame to check lube before a range trip and if necessary add a little lube to the slide rails and frame rails/steel tabs.

+1 - This is pretty much my cleaning routine. I use to be a "after every range trip" guy. No so anymore. I use to like to do it, but now it is more like a chore.

Used to like it too - when I had a LOT less guns to deal with.
I'd guesstimate about every 6-700 rds between cleanings for pistols that are range guns...Or the day before a match. (using jacketed or plated bullets)
1-200 rds for my EDC. I do boresnake and give the extractor/breechface a quick rub with a brush, if that - but to me that's not "cleaning". If it's got lube in the right spots, it's GTG.
My EDC is dirty now. I may get to it this week or maybe next. I'm not worried.

My G19 gets cleaning about every 1k rounds.
SR22 and 10/22 probably every 5k rounds.
Pretty guns get cleaned after every range trip.

Every time they get shot before being put away. Carry guns get cleaned a minimum of once a month.

Too many guns to clean after every range trip, too many trips to the range. I go, on average, once/week.

I end up doing a quick wipe down/cursory clean once every few range trips. Rifles, as needed (when its dirty enough to turn my ammo black ) I shoot the crap out of them, and I just don't have the time or energy to clean after every use.

quote:

Originally posted by Fenris:
Not often enough.

+1

About every other range trip for the G43. Less often fit the bigger Glocks. I detail strip the slide occasionally mostly to make sure the striker channel is clean. Very seldom do I detail strip the frame. Doesn’t really need it, and I don’t want to over size the holes where the pins go. It is plastic after all.

I used to clean after every range trip. But then I wasn't shooting very often. Now I only clean them if I'm bored. When I was doing 3-gun, they got cleaned before the match, but it got too popular and ended up being 9 hours on the range for maybe 10 minutes of shooting. Now I'd be surprised if any particular gun gets cleaned once a year.

Every range trip. I know I don’t need to but I can’t help myself.

quote:

Occasionally, since I like shooting more than cleaning.

And most of my cleaning is a wipe down, bore snake, relube.

This.

I'm not of the 'can't help myself I have to clean' or the 'go into alpha brain waves when I clean' tribe. Been there done that and I'm okay going 500 rounds between cleanings with all of my pistols. Not saying you should or shouldn't, just answering the question.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I used to clean them after each range trip. If I didn’t shoot for a couple of weeks, I’d bust it down, wipe it down, and relube it. Now, I’m shooting my carry guns constantly. They stay properly lubed, get cleaned every few weeks. -ish.

This is my practice, but I shoot a lot less than jlj.

I have some "me" time every Sunday morning. It's my practice to get one gun that has some miles on it and do a full take down cleaning on that gun during that time. Other than that, so long as it has adequate lube, and isn't gritty, it gets shot.

I do live in the sugar sand part of Florida. If a gun gets dropped in sugar sand, it is sidelined until completely cleaned. I'm sure it would work just fine, but I don't want to cause excess wear by shooting a gritty gun.

After every trip to the range and edc gets wiped down daily. Break down, Break Free, Scrub and wipe down.....takes about 8 minutes for a semi auto pistol

Not often.