Says the guy who celebrated his coues hunt with Jim Beam. 😉
I think having a flexible job schedule has a lot to do with it. It seems like the guys who are consistently on big deer spend a lot of time at it.
An applicator will degrease in acetone, blast with aluminum oxide, degrease again with acetone, and plug any critical holes. All you need to do is provide the stripped upper.
Unless it's collectible or you plan on shipping the gun sometime in the future, I'd toss them. That said, I have a pile of gun boxes myself. They came in handy when I moved.
If the max power is above 10x, I prefer FFP. If the max power is below, you're probably going to be at max power for ranges where you'd be using a significant holdover.
The type of grease you use isn't super critical on a fixed breech gun. I've used TW25b on my Citori action and choke tubes, but lately I've been using a tub of lithium grease from Advanced Auto. Don't go too crazy on the choke tube threads.
Mark Drury shoots 200" deer nearly every year. He doesn't accomplish that by shooting 4 year-olds. I don't recall him ever putting anyone down for the deer they choose to shoot.
I've been using a Badlands Treestand pack for the last 5 years or so, and it still looks new. I'm very impressed with the way it's held up coming from Cabelas/Bass Pro brand packs.