For edc I clean it once a month regardless.
For guns in the safe, I clean before shooting and lube appropriately.
For guns just laying around in the safe...I clean them annually just to swap out the lube I put on them before long term storage.

In the military we used a pms system,
Pre use
After use
Monthly
Quarterly
Annually
Lay-up (long term storage)

Some things were simply just function checks, some were preventative...annuals were like measuring the springs to see if they needed replacing...
Lay-up was literally heating artillery grease and dipping the handgun/rifle in it and them wrapping in a foil backed paper...these were to ensure no rusting in storage....and they were lot sampled at five year intervals....

But I think that is a little over the top. I have a gun my grandad gave me from WWII theat has just been wiped down with oil and stored and shot maybe once a year and it is perfectly fine.

I store my guns in a safe inside my air conditioned home so the humidity is usually under 70%

quote:

Originally posted by towershot:
Who do we like best for gun grease?
TS

I would find the cheapest synthetic grease at Walmart. Add a little bit of Mobil 1 Synthetic oil to it so it won't be too thick.Then it's good to go.