Mine works the same as Brushwolf's; turn it on if you want or leave it off. I don't even look for my crosshairs when I see a fox / coyote. All I do is put the small red dot on the critter. Mine is a Mueller scope (which is a great scope for the price in my opinion). Batteries are cheap too. They are basically a watch battery you can get anywhere. I keep an extra in my bag. I think a 2 pack of batteries cost less than $10. And as I said earlier, last a very long time too.