I clean all my guns after each use. It's relaxing, and I actually look forward to the whole process.

As far as the boresnake goes, I usually find that 3 passes is good enough. I pour a little frog lube down the breech end, and then pass the boresnake from breech to muzzle until it looks like a mirror inside. I run a patch through it after that to make sure it's nice and dry.

You can put the boresnake in a sock and run it through the wash.

Once the barrel was all leaded up and I had to use a little hoppes and proper rod to break it loose. Then I did the usual boresnake thing to make it nice and shiny on the inside.