As with several others here, I tend to keep my defensive guns fairly clean.
That said, I don't trust a gun I haven't fired - certainly, a safety/function-check upon reassembly should insure that the weapon is in working order, but until it actually goes bang after it's been apart, I simply don't trust it. And yes, a case can be made that something would go catastrophically wrong at the next trigger pull, but that kind of odds evens out whether the reassembled gun has been fired or not, doesn't it?
As such, my defensive weapons are never
completely clean: just pretty clean.
What I do for my defensive weapons is that I will clean them after using them for a range-day to check their function/zero or to run out my defensive magazine's worth of ammo for their yearly refresh. This is typically on the order of just 50 to 200 rounds.
But what should be mentioned, importantly, is that I keep my defensive weapons segregated from my range/training
copies of the same. My defensive firearms and their magazines are those that I've proven/vetted through several thousand rounds, including at least several hundred using my chosen defensive ammo. And just as with the guns, the magazines which feed these defensive weapons are also kept segregated after vetting, and are carefully cared for: I won't purposely drop them or otherwise abuse them.
The flip side of this are my training/range guns. These guns I sometimes don't clean for thousands upon thousands of rounds - and this includes the training copies of both my XDm9 3.8 Compact and 4.5-inch XDm9, which I call my "beaters."
Throughout the vast majority of the year, both training/range copies are at least as dirty as when I took the following pictures of my beater 3.8 Compact -
Unless it's a very demanding class in which I specifically do not want even a remote possibility of a non-ammo/non-magazine related stoppage popping up, I'm honestly content just putting a drop of lube (I currently use Slip2000 EWL for all of my weapons), on my XDms, at the tip of the muzzle, a drop of lube on the muzzle hood, and a drop on each slide rail, and letting the gun go for the day. Even in high-round count (500 to 1K rounds per day) classes, I know from experience that this is really all that I need.
If the class occurs under extremely demanding physical conditions (low/high temperatures and/or sand/dust/dirt/mud), I will treat the gun accordingly - and this typically means more frequent applications of lube. Mud is really the bane of any firearm, so if the gun gets muddy, I will literally dunk/wash or hose it (or use a makeshift water-squirter by punching a hole in the cap of a plastic bottle of water) free of mud prior to reapplying lube. EWL holds just fine in terms of NE-Ohio's infrequent upticks above the 100 degree and high-humidity mark, and it also flows easily enough in our wintry conditions.
My ARs are treated the same way. The HD copy is pretty darned clean, while the range/training beater gets lots of lube but is left pretty much uncared-for all year, unless a special class arises. My 870 is probably kept the cleanest, because - thanks, Remington!
- she'll rust if you just look at her cross-eyed.
