I have an older Bushnell and a newish Leupold, my buddy has a Nikon. They all work well, but I find that they're most useful for just practicing range estimation. Make your best guestimate, then check with the laser to see how close you were to the correct yardage. Do this a few thousand times and you get really good at estimating. They're also good if you are shooting from a fixed position or stand. Range lots of landmarks in sight, then when a critter shows up you probably have a good reference point to estimate his range by eye.
I don't think I've ever actually pointed at and ranged an animal.