I'd have to disagree with some of the comments made here. I've been shooting autos for close to 50 years starting with a Rem Sportsman 58 and currently shoot 1100's and 11-87's several days a week, every week. I've been known to go thousands of rounds between cleaning, other than the wiping down of the outside. What will get me to tear one down and clean inside and out, is either shooting in the rain or the end of a league. Don't worry, cleaning an 1100 is a piece of cake. For the record, I have never cleaned the recoil spring. I clean the gas tube (easy), knock the 2 pins for the trigger assembly out and pull it. Hose the trigger assem out with WD-40 and then hit it with a spray lubricant, that's done. Wipe the action out and clean the barrel. Once every year or so, I replace the rubber gas ring. Put it together and I'm done. If you're truely concerned about the gas system, buy a Benelli and don't worry about the gas.