Right now my every day carry knife is a Lone Wolf Harsey  T1 folder.  Anymore hunting I don't carry the larger fixed blades  I'll leave them in the vehicle if needed.   Even skinning or boning out an elk most of us use shorter  2" to 3 " blade  folders or a little fixed 2" shaping knife,   I even have  folding  Boker Ceramic that I went thru 5 elk one season before I had it sent back for re-sharpening, I bought a new blade for it a couple months ago, blade nicks real easy too brittle for  anything but cutting.  I do have a Kershaw about little over 3 " folding blade that holds an edge and  easy to sharpen,  I picked up a Muela folder olive wood handles made near Toledo Spain  when I was over there great steels.    I do carry a little pocket steel with me to run the blade a few licks on. 

Just my opinions,  I don't have a warm and fuzzy feeling about any of these so called  let's issue tags in the name of filling coffers of monies that are suppose to go help the game animals.  maybe yes and maybe no I really don't know where all the monies go, could be animal foundations.  I do see G & F  running around in new vehicles,  new buildings, etc.   We have Speciality tags auction or speciality draws,  not a lot but a few.   What burns my ass is we have to live within our means and so should these Gov"n agencies what ever they may be.  They are pricing non-residents out of the game unless they have money, and it's getting worst.  Price increases are rising thru the years that it's affecting regular people.   AZ has another stupid ass idea and has been going on for quite a few years now  since AZ is pretty much (not all) a random big game draw.  it use to be you had to pay up front to put in for tags and if you didn't get  drawn you were refunded your tag fees., now all you have to pay is an application fee (not to be confused with actual fees),  and that money is kept even if you don't get drawn ,  what that does is allows anyone that doesn't have enough money in the bank or credit card to apply and charged if you get drawn.    Big game tags some are pretty expensive even for residents  let alone non-residents all this does is dilute/reduce your big game draw chances with the assumption for instance let's say I'll or anyone else  put's in for everything and hopes to  I get drawn and then get charged from my credit card when and if I get drawn (You have to use a computer to apply and you have to have a credit card to deduct monies when drawn ) and that's B/S.  my under standing non-residents need to buy a non-resident hunting license which is no refunded if you don't get drawn although the tag fees are refunded less the application fees.  maybe some one can correct me if something has changed.    It's money,  it's reducing my chances of getting drawn,  and that keeps people out, IMO.

They are just keeping up with other states,   it's been a rich man's sport for quite a few years now, and especially true for non-residents high tag and license prices., let alone the actual cost of the hunt.  The problem is there are people out there with a lot of money (and that's not a bad thing),  but it sure doesn't help the average person.  Take a look at several Apache reservations  trophy elk hunt's and choke on those prices.  It's cheaper to hunt plains game in Africa than pay for a decent  guided bull elk hunt on public land or pay the high dollar for free roaming ranch tags for bull elk.  Hell when we go Tuna fishing in California or long range down in Mexico I bet it costs at least 500 bucks a day per person  and usually more  by the time it's said and done, and that's on the cheap,  that's not including, fuel , travel & lodging,  fish processing, tips, and  all the rod's , reel's and tackle we have bought thru the years,  nothing is cheap anymore.

You never know

Truck driver 2 is correct .   this is what I do If I want factory looking brass, I do it in two stages one small vibratory tumbler with ground walnut shells I buy from the local pet store (used for bird bedding cheaper than gun brands of ground walnut shells)  I will add a golf ball sized handfull of Bar Keepers Friend cleaner very fine scouring powder get it at walmart ,  RCBS also sells scouring powder in small packets does the same thing for a higher price. The down side this system leaves very fine scratches in the brass , but it also takes most tarnish off. I leave it run all night in the garage,  the next step is to take commercial tumbling media from Hornady (ground corn cob)  for a final polishing, all night again and it does polish out the very fine scratches from the first step.  If it some picked up range brass and in really tarnished/ patina I will soak the brass in 50/50 white vinegar/distilled water solution over night let it dry and goto my first step and see if it comes out,  sometimes yes and sometimes no,  that tarnished you probably not going to use anyway.  Another thing you can do is just use ground walnut shell polish with nothing in it and add a golfball size liquid Turtle wax and run it into ground walnut shell until it is dried into the walnut shells.  I kind of makes the brass a little slicker/smoother good for semi-autos.  if you put any liquids like turtle wax in tumbler and immediately put in the brass you end up with globs of turtle wax that get's into the casings and a mess to clean out. Got to run the liquid till it's dry before putting in any brass.  One thing you never ever do is tumble or Vibratory any live ammo because it breaks down the powder inside and causes the powder to act differently i.e. possibly make it act like a hotter powder, just food for thought.  Nothing ammonia based for cleaning ammo brass it reacts with the brass.  If you have a spare 1/4 to 1/2 horse power electric  motor laying around you can make a giant vibratory tumbler just find an old clothes washer or drier take the tub out, plug the holes , lay it flat, make a wooden or metal frame for the tub to sit on flat  add a few heavy springs with bolts to secure the tub to the frame ,   then get a 1/4 x 2" by 6 " long piece of steel  or whatever is on hand and drill a hole in one end to bolt it extra securely  to the motor shaft and bolt the motor underneath the frame to make it shake out of balance causing the tumbler to vibrate.  basically just like a normal vibratory tumbler just giant sized.   I suppose you could just use an old 55 gal drum cut it in half and do the same thing.  cleans a lot of brass real fast.  This stuff is for people who have access to large amounts of brass  maybe shooting ranges and alike. 

I guess it's what you plan on using  spotting scopes for.  I don't use them for target shooting for the most part.  We use them for cross canyon elk hunting.  This is where I think skimping or trying to save a few bucks is a mistake.  Not everyone looks thru glass the same,  Old Roger Terminator liked some things Nikon where I liked Vortex on some things.  My son has an older Kowa 82mm wide angle spotting and is exceptional in clarity you don't need super high powered eyepieces to scan mtn sides, in fact you miss a lot of things by choking down field of view VS lower powered wide angle  glass that you can cover more hillside and see a much larger area at the same time,  and you see the wrinkles on old mr elk's neck at 800 yds.  Optical clarity over shear power every time.   My son's  hunting buddies spare no expense and a couple use the dual eye piece Swarovski BTX series with 30x and 35 X eye pieces  these scopes we have used in the past to count kickers on antlers at pretty long ranges and not nearly as hard on your eyes since you are using both eyes instead of one eye.   All of us use some type of German 15x56 binos for rapid scanning and big heavy spotters come out to count points and judge antlers.  I prefer to use small spotters like my Vortex razor HD 11x33 or a Leupold Gold Ring 15 x 30.   not because they are better optically but rather they are a lot lighter to carry around and I not near as serious as my son and his buddies,  they also shed hunt with these big spotters.  If I were to buy a new big spotter for my self it would be a Kowa because I like the glass. You got to look thru a bunch of glass in real world situations to make an informed decision just for yourself.  Some of these scopes are 5, 6, 7 thousand dollars by the time you get the right scope ,  a GOOD tri-pod and other stuff.  Hell I still carry an old 10 x Zeiss pocket bino's  as good today as they were 30 + years ago,  I got an old pair of Hensoldt military bino's I keep in the side by side (still useful and good glass).  I paid 40 bucks for them at a swap meet the guy didn't know what he had.   

Very sorry to hear ,   they are part of the family.  the good thing is you will always remember them,  the ashes of our dogs will be scattered with mine when I kick the bucket.