I've used a friends a grand total of twice. The first time it worked like magic. My friend had shot a deer at dusk and we went to track it. Anyone who has tracked in the dark knows how tough it can be. Well he wips out this doo-dad and goes to scanning around the woods like star trek, it lights up in one direction and we walk 75 yards and theres the deer. I was impressed. Now it was chilly (low 40's) and the deer was a fresh kill (less than an hour) so I'm sure that helped. The second time the weather was warmer and the kill older and the deer covered more ground (250 yards) we might as well have been scanning a cell phone around hoping to find that deer. That one took old fashion tracking to find.