I just used it for the first time yesterday. Carried it around for a few hours and the weight felt good.
I was digging in dry, rocky ground, but it did a good job of cutting clean plugs. The curved blade and D-shaped handle definitely made pulling the plugs out easier. The blade is on the large side but I was chasing some deep (10"+) targets, so I could easily dig plugs down to that depth (or close enough that my pinpointer would tell me where to go once I dug the plug).
As a tall person, the 40" length felt great. I didn't need to bend over much at all (other than to retrieve targets, of course).
I did have to adapt my digging a bit -- I'm used to straight-bladed shovels, but this one produces conical plugs if you try to dig straight down. I found that pushing the shovel forward a bit as you dig helps make the plug a little more straight-edged.
Need to use it more but happy with the first trip out.