Workflow for animated weapons?

I've got weapons with their own armatures/skeletons, with a bone that snaps to the player's respective weapon bone (usually near the hand) to ensure that the player's skeleton "holds" that weapon.
Given how complex the animators/animation controllers are for the player, can I have the player's animator control the weapon's skeleton's animations too?
What do most people do as a workflow for animated weapons (i.e. weapons where the player skeleton has animations that synchronise with the weapon's own animations)