a pristine firearm isn't the top of the pyramid
It's completely your choice. My condolences to your firearms. The condition of a firearm says a lot about it's owner.
I'll try to tolerate my clean ones.
all but my AK. i feel dirty if i clean it.
I am usually very anal about my firearms being cleaned the same day I shoot them. That being said, the last time I went out (over a month ago) I brought the AK. It still has not been cleaned.
I picked up a new handgun at the 1500 this past weekend (a 1911) and the previous owner had seriously neglected it. The inside of the barrel was solid black in between the riffling grooves.
It took me about an hour to thoroughly clean it, I probably put 10-15 cleaning pads through the barrel and they came out black every time. I finally gave up and used a wire brush cleaning rod, followed by a few pads. That did the trick quite nicely Now it's nice and shiny again.
So please, don't get lazy on your guns! Protect them like the investments that they are. Fortunately I think it's a safe bet most of the members here pretty adamant about cleaning their weapons