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Recently bought a S&W MP380. Do you disassemble every time for cleaning?

Field strip - yes. It is so simple, why would you not?

No. I usually just wipe off with an oily rag. Only occasionally will I strip and clean a pistol. I don’t see the need. I don’t tear down my truck’s engine and clean the pistons and crankshaft every time I drive it either.

Do you ever change the oil and grease the places that need lubed on that truck? If I want to clean and lube the slide rails I field strip the pistol to give complete access to those areas. Different strokes and all that maybe, but field stripping a semi auto pistol is so easy it doesn't bother me to do that little extra.

I sure do, but again, not every time I drive it.

Ideally, but it's not strictly necessary.

I often do for my carry guns, just because I want at least the chamber to be clean and dry for when I reload it with carry ammo after shooting. If it's strictly a range gun, however, and will just go back into the safe after you're done, you only need to take it down to clean/lube it every thousand rounds or so. Just make sure it's wiped down with a preservative soaked cloth if there's any blued steel on the gun. A Glock type gun doesn't even strictly need that just to stick back into the safe after shooting.

👍👍👍👍 common sense and good advice right there.

It takes less than 15 minutes to field strip and clean a semi-auto handgun, with some economies of scale when doing more than one at a time. For a self-defense carry gun, I like to be in a position to prove from a simple visual inspection that I haven't shot it (assuming I haven't). So, I clean it every time I shoot it, as soon as I get home. If I am going to be out for a while, I keep a bore snake in my range kit.

I agree, with that. I may put a hundred rounds through one before I give it a good cleaning.

A hundred rounds is half a range outing.

Only if it needs it.

You will develop your own eye for when the pistol is dirty enough to clean. Almost more important is refining your cleaning procedure to make it less of a pain in the azz - it takes me about 3 minutes. I have a bronze 9mm bronze brush (also fits .38/.357 and .380) and .45 ACP bronze brush in the garage along with an air compressor and oil dropper. I drop the magazine, dry brush the bore, hit everything with the air compressor, use 3-4 drops of oil, wipe down the exterior, and re-insert the magazine. Done - no field strip.

The air compressor has a standard gun with a 6" extension to reach down the barrel and all the nooks and crannies. I put a couple wraps of electrical tape around the safety vent.

For my carry weapon, it is cleaned after every training and every 1 to 2 months to clean out lint and particulates if I haven't cleaned it from shooting. Competition stuff gets cleaned before competitions. Spares and others that are for fun get inspected visually for carbon build up and wear to see if they need cleaned and oiled. That process has worked for me. I have never had a failure to function from that was then corrected from a cleaning unless I was doing it on purpose to see how dirty the pistol could get. This has been over 25 years and several dozen pistols. And BTW, 380 shoots fairly clean, so you wont have much to clean out when you do.

Yup, same here.

This is the process I follow. Doesn't take long and you know the gun is clean if it ends up sitting in the safe for a while. I always want my carry guns clean because it provides some clue as to how may shots have been fired if it had to be used.

If I'm doing a bunch of range practice with a gun I use in competition and I know I'll be shooting it again in a day or two, I sometimes just wipe it off and put it in the safe. I re-lube it before I shoot it again.

I clean every 1k on my glocks. You could go way longer as long as you add oil.