Cosmodragoon, I just thought I'd let ya know that I read your original post, and I really feel for you. I could see myself in such a situation, trying to get 3 guns clean while being eaten up by mosquitos, only to find a loose barrel on the last one. I'm sure that would get to me!
I wish I had an answer for you about a better way to clean. I do it about the same as you, and I try to get them clean enough that there are no more dirty patches coming out, even after running a brass brush through.
The only suggestion I have is... if you haven't shot it much, just get it clean enough. Then every other time, or after firing a lot of rounds, go ahead and clean it like you were going to put it away for a few years... just don't do it every time.
Also, never, ever, ever, take more than 2 guns shooting at any one time... I made that decision a few years ago, and I'm very glad that I've stuck to it.
I'll admit that for years I've cleaned each gun after each shooting session as if I were never going to shoot it again and was sending it off to a museum. As many others have said, that's really not necessary. But neither is changing your underwear every day, but I still do it.
Seriously though, as I get older, I find myself taking short cuts with my cleaning. Sometimes I'll plan to shoot the gun again soon, and only spend a couple min freshening it up for the next range session. Or with some of my less expensive/ higher use/ not disassembly friendly guns, I will clean them well enough with out taking them all the way down, and then after 1000 rounds or so I'll go through the whole gun so it's spick and span again. The Ruger 10/22 is a good example. I'm not going to disassemble the whole gun just to get up above the bolt on that thing after only a couple hundred rounds, when instead I can just lock the bolt back, clean inside the receiver real well with a bunch of Q-tips, clean out the barrel, wipe the gun down, and call it good.
I'd say the same for revolvers, if your going to shoot it a lot, just get it clean enough so you feel like it's running well and wont form any rust between shootings, then after going through that rotation a few times, give it a good cleaning.
Some of my nicer stuff I like to clean up perfectly every time. I also do the same with sentimental firearms that I've gotten from family, or ones that I know I wont shoot again for a real long time.
Anyway, good luck, and if you would prefer to clean your guns inside (outside is nice because you don't have to worry about the mess so much) I'd go with Slip 2000... just do a search on the net about it. It's an amazing CLP that does everything right in my opinion.
