I used one all season back in about 1984 in South Al.
You really had to practice to learn how the string affected arrow flight, because it did really affect arrow flight.
Even worse, the way the string affected arrow flight varied (intensified) as the inner spool of twine was used up (think dental floss). The less string in the spool, the more affect on arrow flight.
For me, forget shots past 20 yards, the arrow drop was ridiculous past that distance.
And FORGET shooting through tight spots. While the string peels out well, it really "rainbows" from the bottom of the arrow, catching every twig within two feet below the path of the arrow.
Still, I killed a couple of deer with that thing.
I will never forget the first one I killed.
The arrow was not a pass through (desired shot) and stayed in the deer.
After the shot, as expected, the deer tore out and really peeled out line. Then, for the next thirty minutes I sat in my stand and watched line feed out. About every three or four minutes the line would just begin to peel out again. Talk about nerve racking.
It was a liver lung shot and the deer kept getting up and moving around. It only traveled about 200 yards total.
Took me a long time to figure out that by simply practicing, I could actually make shots that actually killed the deer quickly. So I really did not need much help in tracking.
Slow, but I do get there.