Every time I shoot the AR, I give it a good general cleaning.
After disassembly, I spray all the bolt carrier and bolt parts with Powder Blast and scrub with a brush with some CLP on it, then set it aside to soak.
I clean the receiver end of the bore with the AR bore brush, lint free rags, (Old skivvie shirts work well.) and tooth brush and q-tips.
I run a patch wetted with military or Hoppe's bore cleaner through the bore, followed by the bore brush several times to loosen up the crap. Then I swab the bore out with clean patches until it is fairly clean (light gray). I then wet a patch with CLP (Don't forget to shake it first!) and run that wet patch through the bore a few times to wet it up. Then it's back to the dry patches until they come out clean.
I clean out the lower with rags and q-tips, especially in and around the trigger area.
I disassemble the bolt carrier, inspect all the parts and clean all the internals, being careful to re-align the sealing rings 120 degs out of phase before reassembly. Then I use the AR-15 bolt scraper tool to clean the carbon buildup in the inner part of the bolt carrier.
I reassemble the bolt carrier and lube it up generously with CLP, especially the lube holes. I have recently been told by a Marine major (retired) and a couple of soldiers that keeping the AR bolt carrier and internals slurpy with CLP is now the accepted practice. We didn't do that in the '70s but I do it now. Bad part is that the rifle sprays CLP all over me for the first few rounds. (On the other hand, I seriously doubt the boys in Afghanistan are keeping their weapons very wet. I see them brushing the dust out all the time. Lots of CLP might be counter-productive to good cleanliness.)
I scrub out the copper residue from the muzzle break holes with Hoppes and a brush.
I check all the mags I used and may have dropped in the dirt then clean them as required. About once a year they all get disassembled and thoroughly cleaned.
I clean the Trijicon gunsight with the applicator provided.
Total time approx. 1.5 hours (Annual mag cleaning not included.)
About every 2000 rds, I thoroughly clean the bore with JB's cream, then follow that up with the standard procedure above. That is a pain in the butt but it does scrub a bunch of goop out of the bore...especially after I've been using some of that sooty SA ammo. This adds about another 1/2 hour.
Is this too much cleaning?