I feel sorry for all of you autoloader-shooting folks out there. Allll of that disssassembly!
I only have revolvers so far and cleaning them isn't about fun, it's about keeping a mechanical piece of art looking like art. Unfortunately, my art is degarding no matter how long i spend rubbing that beautiful carbon steel.
Long range sessions are tough on guns. A thousand rounds of even the dimminutive .22 per session through a 60 year old revolver beats it up.
So I clean it extra good when I get home
I use hoppes on the boor and inside the cylinders, whipe down and soak the trouble spots with breakfree, then clean off with FP-10 and squirt a little of the overpriced-chicken-urine inside through the openings for the thirsty internals.
Takes about half an hour for the brief clean. Sometimes my conscience bothers me and I get it out between range sessions and clean it again. Lots of black stuff comes away, even when I am very anal. That's how it works.
If you want spotless -- which you don't need all of the time -- you have to take the whole thing apart and soak and scrub in some form of aggressive degreaser. I hear SimpleGreen fills the bill nicely. But I'm a young buck and haven't moved up to that level. My revolvers will have to wait for the day when I'm ready for open-plate surgery.
If you love your guns for their beauty as well as their function, you'd be wise to clean them as best that suits your comfort level. Even a brief cleaning after every range session is better than skipping a session. Me, I get off everything I can before I feel like quitting. Usually 2 hours total for my S&W 442 and K-22 (30 minutes for the 442 after a rough session, hour or more for the K-22).