I have a LTO. It's not the tracker 2 HD which I would expect to be better. Works well. I use it primarily for making sure no deer are in the area before getting out of treestand. I have used it twice in tracking. Once for a bear that run into thick stuff. It was helpful to some degree. Used it on a deer tbis,year I Shot right at end of shooting light. Caught a glimpse of him at 100 yards going behind bushes.

Ultimately you do need to have a line of sight to what you're looking at to find it. You're not just going to magically see through tall grass and heavy leaves. If there is gaps between them it will show. Now if you had a harvested cornfield or somewhere that was quasi open it could be extremely useful or Stubbly grass. It's not going to be useful for tracking blood or seeing where a deer took a step. If you had a higher point to look down into grassy areas it could be very helpful or seeing at extreme low light for a deer is running too. It hasn't came up but blood trailing in the dark might be extremely useful if the animal is bedded and/or gets up.

It's best use really is picking out deer to and from your tree stand. Distance wise I would say 150ish yards max. Maybe 200 if it's pretty open in the animal is moving. They really look like dots in the screen at that distance. My favorite color is white wear black denotes warmer temp. I find that's the easiest to differentiate.

I will also tell you this. Things I have not been able to pick out on deer unless they are large is antlers. Under 30 yards usually I can make out if a larger deer has antlers but impossible to really tell any detail. Usually you can determine a buck at closer distance more by its body shape. I have confirmed this when deer come in and it's completely dark and a deer walks in front of a camera that I was looking at.

If you're hunting a somewhat open area I would almost consider this a necessity if you want to keep your tree stand locations the secret from the deer. I would consider it one of the best purchases I have made.

Downside is you might realize how many deer are in your area and you might be stuck in your tree stand well past dark. Currently I have been in there an hour and a half past shooting light because deer kept coming by or Milling around at too close of a distance to quietly get out without being detected

 

Ask for feedback on how you hold it, yeah in some ways it does seem less than ideal. But it doesn't have to be directly in front of you. I can usually pan it side to side 60 degrees right or left and still see enough of the screen. If using it after dark as a precaution I often switch to red screen the kind of scan the area. And then switch to White if I don't think anything's around. Truthfully I can't think of a better way to achieve this because you have to point it in the direction you want to see. I have not tried anything else that I can compare it to

 

So I went to Cabela's to take a look at it in person before I open the box. Got to handle the LTO tracker, Tracker HD and the Flir Scout.

Image on the HD was by far the best. I did prefer the eyepiece on the flir but think the image quality is worth the move to the tracker 2 HD.

I also like that it uses cr123 batteries. Sure they don't last as long but its nice to have batteries in the pack vs forgetting to charge something

 

They didnt have the HD out when I bought mine a few years back. I would prefer better image for sure. Deer turn into moving dot/blobs at distance.

On mine, 1 CR123 battery will last a season or most of it. I carry a spare. Enjoy it! I ALMOST consider it an essential