heel to toe vs toe to heel walking?

[treeroot]

Fox walk works pretty good but will tire you out over a long distance. Toe heel I use pretty regularly for the last few hundred yards.

Surfaces I can't be quiet on like crunchy snow I either move in the wind gusts, or heel toe trying to sound 4 legged. If I make a loud noise by mistake I wait awhile before moving again.

Biggest issue I run into is trying to not get tangled on brush, especially snow weighted. Bump it, it dumps the snow and flings up.

[Huntress13]

Either I need to practice this or y'all have different kind of woods. Obviously yes avoid stepping on branches. But impossible for me to be silent on several inches and layers of crunchy leaves no matter which way I put my feet. The only thing that works for me is to take several steps and stop, then a different number of steps and stop to sound like an animal.

I watched a video once with someone teaching how to walk quietly in the woods and I laughed because it looked like a swept path of hard packed ground with just a few flat perfect soft leaves sprinkled on it. Yeah I could be silent on that too. Lol.

[raisins]

Either I need to practice this or y'all have different kind of woods. Obviously yes avoid stepping on branches. But impossible for me to be silent on several inches and layers of crunchy leaves no matter which way I put my feet. The only thing that works for me is to take several steps and stop, then a different number of steps and stop to sound like an animal.

I watched a video once with someone teaching how to walk quietly in the woods and I laughed because it looked like a swept path of hard packed ground with just a few flat perfect soft leaves sprinkled on it. Yeah I could be silent on that too. Lol.

Yeah, on crunchy leaves in a well littered forest it is impossible to be silent (or on crunchy, frozen ground). If you walk painfully slow and focus on letting the foot muffle itself as you lay it down, then that obviously helps. I once kicked my shoes off and tried to stalk a buck for a short distance in dry leaves. It was a lot quieter, but he still spooked. If they wouldn't be a pain for 100 other reasons, then those fleece boot covers would be the ticket, I think.

[SaddleMaster]

In the book "Stalking & Still-Hunting: The Ground Hunter's Bible" he mentions a pretty cool method for sounding like a deer walking. You put your toe down first and then you snap your heal down hard. So each step makes 2 distinct sounds and makes it sound like a 4 legged animal walking. I'll do this when it's dry and woods are quiet.

[KRONIIK]

Toe to heal making a noise in the leaves with each one. Will sound like a four legged animal walking. I have used this with success walking near bedding. I don’t use the deer walking technique all the time , most times I want to be silent

I think there's some merit to this.
Making "two steps with each step", so to speak, gives your pace a 1-2, short pause,1-2, short pause, etc. rythm that sounds like a lot like a walking deer.
I think it's less likely to spook them than our usual steady 1-2-3-4-5-6 pace.

[KRONIIK]

Either I need to practice this or y'all have different kind of woods. Obviously yes avoid stepping on branches. But impossible for me to be silent on several inches and layers of crunchy leaves no matter which way I put my feet. The only thing that works for me is to take several steps and stop, then a different number of steps and stop to sound like an animal.

I watched a video once with someone teaching how to walk quietly in the woods and I laughed because it looked like a swept path of hard packed ground with just a few flat perfect soft leaves sprinkled on it. Yeah I could be silent on that too. Lol.

LOL!
No kidding!
That's why I like to "set up" my stalks and still-hunts by taking a leaf blower down my anticipated path the day before! Works great.

[raisins]

Either I need to practice this or y'all have different kind of woods. Obviously yes avoid stepping on branches. But impossible for me to be silent on several inches and layers of crunchy leaves no matter which way I put my feet. The only thing that works for me is to take several steps and stop, then a different number of steps and stop to sound like an animal.

I watched a video once with someone teaching how to walk quietly in the woods and I laughed because it looked like a swept path of hard packed ground with just a few flat perfect soft leaves sprinkled on it. Yeah I could be silent on that too. Lol.

LOL!
No kidding!
That's why I like to "set up" my stalks and still-hunts by taking a leaf blower down my anticipated path the day before! Works great.

All kidding aside, people sometimes do rake the leaves away from their stand approach path for just this reason. I'm not hardcore enough to rake 1/4 mile of public land though! Maybe the last 100 yards.....but still.

[Huntress13]

Either I need to practice this or y'all have different kind of woods. Obviously yes avoid stepping on branches. But impossible for me to be silent on several inches and layers of crunchy leaves no matter which way I put my feet. The only thing that works for me is to take several steps and stop, then a different number of steps and stop to sound like an animal.

I watched a video once with someone teaching how to walk quietly in the woods and I laughed because it looked like a swept path of hard packed ground with just a few flat perfect soft leaves sprinkled on it. Yeah I could be silent on that too. Lol.

LOL!
No kidding!
That's why I like to "set up" my stalks and still-hunts by taking a leaf blower down my anticipated path the day before! Works great.

All kidding aside, people sometimes do rake the leaves away from their stand approach path for just this reason. I'm not hardcore enough to rake 1/4 mile of public land though! Maybe the last 100 yards.....but still.

You'd have to be raking it every day. Even on our own private land, you can clear paths to your stands one day then the leaves come down.... unless you clear it after most of the leaves come off the trees. It does help clear sticks and branches, but get a high wind then there are more.

[DaveT1963]

Crunchy leaves doesn't really matter. IMO best thing a person can do is mimic sound other animals make. Personally, for me , I will scuffle a lot to sound like an armadillo - or I will walk a few steps in a burst, let out a turkey sound or two. I don't try to hide noise as much as deceive them that the noise is being made by something non threatening. Armadillos are obnoxiously loud in leaves and yet deer pay ZERP attention to them. The cadence of a human (steady and impatient) is what deer associate with danger..... nothing else is in a hurry or walks with that cadence.

[Edcyclopedia]

I usually trip every 100-steps or so
And, NO, it's not caused by the drugs...

[Boogieman1]

I’ve tried all kinds of stuff to be quiet or sound like a 4 legged animal. For me nothing seemed to make any diff, if they thought I sounded like deer they would circle and blow at me. Currently I don’t do squat. I mean I try my best not to be bumping into deer on the way to my stand. I’m conscious of where I put my feet and where my scent is blowing. I walk full throttle never stopping, slowing down or looking around. I then loop around into my stand. My thought is if any deer seen or heard me there not going in that direction, so the loop encourages travel to where I’m waiting. Once I’m close to the tree I slow down and be as quiet as I can. Don’t know if my system works or not but it gives me confidence while in the tree.

[Josh_S]

Fred Asbell talks about this in his book. I have tried a few times, and grew tired of it. In the whitetail woods, I like to move when the wind blows or when another critter makes a distracting noise.

[Sam Ubl]

This is an awesome topic and one that really stood out to me. My Dad taught me early on to step on my toes and roll my feet back to my heel in order to sneak as quiet as possible. Two main reasons: 1) Your toe is lighter than your heal and has more flex and feeling; 2) As you roll your foot toe to heel, if you feel debris you still haven't planted weight on it and can easily lift and re-position before committing to the step and cracking a loud branch.

Awesome topic and something I often suggest to a cameraman if I have one following. One of the most crucial hunting lessons I learned at an early age.