How do you all avoid the ever present crunch of pine cones or dry weeds and such. I do a lot of spot and stock and just cringe everytime I set off a grenade. It just tell all the criters, "Hey look at me, I'm here." Sorta defeats my intention of being a silent assassin. haha

I do some stalking, but not much. But I do sneak in really close to bedded bucks and set up undetected. That takes some discipline. I move very slowly and place each footstep with care. I look ahead and plan a rought;... Most of all, if I make a noise, I stop and freeze in my tracks. Lots of things make noise in the woods. An animal will forget about you if you don't move or make more noise for a while. He will loose interest and go back to whatever he was doing hopefully.

For elk, I don't worry to much about noise since elk themselves are loud moving through the timber. If you can see the animal or herd you are stalking, definitely freeze if they are looking at you. Mainly movement should be done when animals head is down feeding.

Look at the ground when you walk.

walk slow, make every foot step count.
Step applying slight pressure and feel your step, and apply your weight if it feels solid.

Done my fair share of stalking. If you can't just breath through your nose your walking too fast either stalking or walking to your stands.

One thing I do when I go out tracking is I buy a pack of TicTacs and i take some out so it's about 1/2-3/4 full and I put it in my pants pocket. If I can hear those TicTacs making any noise I know I'm walking too fast.