I’ve made thousands on thousands of dollars being paid to clean customer firearms - $20 at a time. The majority of those were on the back of an introduction to a new customer with a pile of malfunctioning “busted” firearms which simply turned out to be filthy, I clean the guns once, usually for free, then folks have asked to simply bring them back in every year for another cleaning - $20... Even with that experience, I’ve never seen a common trend of cleaning service. Do gunshops actually offer this?
I don’t believe in “cleaning every time I shoot,” it’s simply wasted energy for most instances. It’s a trend among folks who don’t actually shoot - as the firearm is going away for long term storage after every outing.
For everything else, horses for courses, defaulting to “clean before going into long term storage.” When I bring a special firearm out for the one time in a few years it gets shot, I clean it, because it’s going into storage again. My regular use 22LR’s get shot a lot, and they might get pushed out every 20-40,000 rounds, with just quick cleaning of the action every so often. My centerfire match rifles I clean every 250-400 rounds, as they tend to start misbehaving after 400-500, and I need reliable performance of 150-250 rounds per match. So I might make it through two one day matches or one two day match, and a little practice. My hunting rifles - on years I pull out a specific rifle for hunting - will get dirty in mid-summer for practice, then stay dirty until season is over. My carry pistols get admin cleaning monthly.
