To keep this review somewhat structured, I will go over my experience from start to... now. I debated purchasing this item for one reason: the shipping and handling price. About six bucks. Not bad, but because I wanted two to start, that for some reason doubled the price of shipping. and will further increase the shipping price the more you get. (If you want ten, shipping will be about 60). Maybe I'm a bit spoiled with amazon prime but that seems excessive for the size of the item. After deciding to purchase the product, the estimated shipping and delivery was 4 - 14 days. Which is typically LONG for me. It was delivered from somewhere in New York, to my residence in New Mexico in two days. Maybe that shipping price payed off? :) Now I have the product. The box itself is about half the size of a standard 400 page spiral bound notebook. The instructions are printed on the "lid flap" of the box and are not confusing, but more closely described as odd in my opinion. Inside the box contains: the devise itself, 100ft black thick sewing string, two 4ft sections of about 18 gauge wire, one medium U staple, and 1 6" Cyalume orange high intensity 5 minute chem light. According to a sticker on the box, my chem light expired 09/2011. Which contributed to loss of a star. Because I found the instructions strange, I'll point out what each item in the box is for, or what I learned from my trials. 1: The current picture that amazon depicts the device upside down! Look closely near the bottom of the chem in the picture and you will see an arrow indicating "this end up". It doesn't actually say this but next to the arrow it does say "UP" 2: The string is the actual tip wire to activate the device 3: The wire is to attach the device to the platform. Like a tree or 2x4. 4: The instructions don't actually mention the U staple at all. From my guessing, its intended to be used to secure the trip line to the opposite end of the device. eg. The second tree or the second 2x4... 5: With the device right side up, the chem light will just drop/slide into the retainers. This is where I messed up. I placed the thinner end of the chem into the lower retainer, then tried to "roll" the thicker end into the upper retainer. That squeeze effectively activated the "expired" chem light. This honestly surprised me. I'm used to those cheap 4" chem lights that once you crack them you have to shake them to get the full illumination. This one, You can actually see the chemicals mixing to create the light and were intensely bright. It looked just like when you add creamer to coffee. By the way, this devise only works with 6" chem lights Now for the actual functionality of the device. (so far) I armed and activated it twice, (without chems) and it worked fine. The third time I armed and activated it, (again without chems) the spring detached itself from the base plate. The end of the spring that is attached to the striker held strong. After re-attaching the spring to the base plate with A LOT of force it was operational again (this happened 3 times!). I recommend clamping the spring ends absolutely closed. A bit more functionality thoughts but not yet tested. What I like a lot about about the item, is although the box says "disposable", it is EVERYTHING but disposable! Not subjected to being just a trip flare. It is advertised as a silent alarm of sorts, but if you tie a noise maker to the striker (tin cans, jingle bells) it becomes audible and visible if used creatively. It has enough tension in the spring to be used as a spring snare for trapping small animals. Maybe used as an automatic fishing reel if you find a suitable river. Although there were some growing pains, there wasn't anything that would be a deal breaker. This is a product I am completely satisfied with. I hope I have helped save you from some frustrations! I have told a lot of people about this product and will continue to do so. Thanks for reading! P.S. If you have questions, I WILL answer as soon as i can!
