This is a great topic for discussion. Personally I've always wondered what the consensus is concerning how frequently one should clean their revolver.
I clean my guns after every range trip but that's not what I grew up doing. My Dad and I would clean the guns in his cabinet once a year if that and we didn't think much of it. When I started getting into shooting I changed my routine and came to enjoy stripping and cleaning all my guns. Sometimes I do it when I'm bored. I'll just pick one out of the safe and take it down, clean, oil and reassemble. I also take the time while it's stripped, to inspect the parts and order replacements or do some modifications, usually an action job or something like that.
Every time I buy a new/used gun I will strip it down completely, thoroughly clean it, oil it and reassemble it before I shoot it for the first time. This practice has taught me a lot about many different firearms and like ContinentalOp it's a zen thing for me too I guess, there's something relaxing and gratifying about understanding how firearms work, at least for me. Unlike many it doesn't scare me to do this either since I know that most parts can be replaced if lost or broken and if not then I'll take it to a gunsmith to fix. Some of this may go beyond the topic a bit but to me it's in the same category.
So having been taught to clean a gun once a year to what some might consider the opposite extreme of cleaning a gun when it doesn't really need it just for the pleasure of it, I guess it's probably somewhere in the middle, that is every 300-500 rounds or so one should do a thorough cleaning and maybe a quick wipe down in between. This is for revolvers, autos I consider less reliable and necessary to clean after every range trip. If it were my carry gun I would give it a thorough cleaning and safety check after every use regardless of whether it was necessary. One would not want to lose their life because their gun jammed when it was needed most due to their own neglect.
