American Indian Urban Survival Skill
The early American Indians didn’t have long range sniper rifles to bring home a meal from their hunting trips.
With clubs, spears, and bows, they needed to get ultra close in order to get in a kill strike.
But animals have incredible hearing that you would think would make it near IMPOSSIBLE, wouldn’t you?
So how did they stalk their prey with invisible silence?
Their secret will work equally well for your quest to master urban survival skills.
Whether you’re trying to get close to game for a closer target, slither silently to a supply cache to raid, or sneak up on an enemy sentry lookout for silent “removal”, your ability to remain undetectable is a critical skill…
Urban Survival Skill:
How To Sneak Up On Your Victim…
Bottom line, to remain silent, the key is in HOW you step.
While most people are programmed to walk heel-to-toe, this is actually the OPPOSITE way to walk when your intention is STEALTH.
- First, get rid of any noisy equipment or clothing on your person. This is why us soldiers have rubber silencers on our dog tags.
- Now bend at the knees keeping your center of gravity as low as is comfortably possible, but keep your upper body erect. If you hunch forward (like most people naturally do), you’ll commit too much of your body weight to your forward foot.
- Place your hands. palms facing down, at waist height with your arms bent and spread wide to keep your balance and be at the “ready” for your quick kill movement.
- Step forward only about 3 feet at a time and place your TOES of your lead foot softly on the ground in front of you while you rest the majority of your body’s weight on your rear foot (like a common “front snap kick” posture). This allows you to “feel the noise quality” of the surface you’re about to step on because your toes are much more sensitive than your heel.
This also allows you to move or step around any twigs or other noisy obstacles if needed or, if you start to hear it will be too noisy, it’s easier to stop yourself and adjust your body weight back to stop your forward movement and find an alternative stepping surface.
Once your toes are sure of a solid, quiet surface, it’s ok to place your heel softly on the ground and once you’re in range to “attack”, lean forward again on your toes to provide a springing base to launch an explosive assault.
How To Practice This Urban Survival Stealth Skill…
Practice this movement with a friend in different environments (outside on pavement, in the woods, in your own house…) and have them turn with their back to you and their eyes closed to “grade” your stealth skills.
It’s ok to be heard (after all, he’s EXPECTING you to sneak up on him). But have him give you feedback on WHAT he heard so you can become more aware of areas you need to work on to be more silent.
To learn more urban survival secrets, Click Here Now…
That’s good. Another way to practice is to try to sneak up on your dogs while they’re sleeping.
Be careful sneaking up on you dogs, that’s a good way to get bit!
very awesome, similar to a Japanese style I learned in which one side steps in a similar fashion, using the lead foot as a foundation and carefully bringing the trailing foot across the front(never the back) and gently transferring weight to the toes, then the knife edge of the foot, and to complete the cycle by drawing the lead foot, which is now trailing, back up again using the same toes to edge of foot technique. this also requires a slight crouching stance to give fluidity and balance while in motion.
This technique worked really well with me. IU tried it out in this wooded area behind my house and there was a very large diffenece from what I used to do.
Try putting down one thin layer of newspaper on a carpeted floor and walking across the room without tearing the papers..
My only question about the technique described by smithjac is in the twisting of the feet as you transition from lead foot to trailing foot. Even as a ‘knife edge’ it would seem to me you may encounter additional ground objects that could move or break to create noise. (twigs and/or leaves that could rub each other or snap, for example.) But a side-step movement CAN be effective…I just lead with the same foot each time, without twisting or stepping one foot over the other. But stepping down with the TOEs is VERY important, as is keeping the torso as vertical as possible and the hips as level as possible.
Hopefully, you will only ever use this technique for fun and training, and NEVER have to use it in conflict… PEACE!! (o;
what was that movie,TV show,where the student had do that on rice paper;big fail
Kung Fu
Besides rubber dog tags you can take the metal off your lbe(load bearing equipment) and use paratroop cord to secure it to your web belt.Another trick is jump up and see what noises you make and from where..then eliminate them until you hear nothing.
Good way my friends and I used to practice this is we’d choose a stretch of forest (30-50 feet), then one person turns around while the others, starting on the other side of the “boundaries” try to sneak up on him. The person who is “it” is only allowed to turn around and to tag the others if he hears someone come behind him within arms reach. Simple to practice, and gives an edge during those forest paintball matches.
That’s like splinter cell.It works.Thnx jeff.R35p3ct!
I have studied many stealth technique over the years I have found out that depending on the enviroment that your in not to mention different types of weather also have a factor in what I call stealth movement, I also have gotten good at shadow hopping during the night where you use the enviroments shadows to keep you concealed. But noise, The trick to that is tape down anything with rigging tape that you might think would make noise from tags on down to your change and then jump up and down a few times if you make noise even then you might have missed something.
Excellent technique! As a Native American and a long-time hunter this is exactly the way to move silently, particlulary in a wooded environment with many twigs, leaves along the ground to give away your position. Great tip Jeff, keep up the good work!
well after looking at the posts and trying out a few things, I have to update my comment, the technique I referred to IS in fact the same basic concept, there is no twist and no knife edge of foot, very short movements and the step is dictated by the variables of circumstances. As noted above gear is an issue that must be secured or removed, and now days we, as warriors, must back up a few hundred years mentally and learn to rely on our training, wits and most importantly experience, not our gear. ooh rah. k.i.s.s.
right;cops call it “dont use hardware to solve a software problem”
I would add: stay out of the light as best you can, day and night. Also flow through the terrain. If you have ever watched a cat, they flow forward briefly, then pause and repeat. Lastly, do not stare at your target. Humans and animals have that sixth sense that they are being watched.
right;back in the 70s mike echanis,airborne ranger co,nam,supposedly knew what he was talking about & said you can reduce that psychic signiture by visualizing your thoughts are going around you in a closed loop
Excellent tip. Technique is similar to what was taught in U.S. Army Ranger school. Adding to # 11′s comment – Sense of smell must be taken into account. Don’t be applying/wearing scented products.
Take care, v/r
also try to be downwind (BTW when i went thru ranger school 82 it was a total joke,heard that from a couple ranger batt guys too of the period,they literally lol at non-batt ranger tabbies like me;probably better now w/ RIs rotating in & out of combat)
Sir;
dont forget the limbs at waist and head height.
Yes this is awesome, and yes walking up on your dogs
is a good way to pratice walking. I have been doing this for years.
Paul
All r good ways to sneak onto someone without being detected. I just want to add my 2 cents, I am a viet-nam vet 68-69 3rd Recon 3rd Marine Div. We had to move along all kinds of different terrains, we had to move along hills & slopes that are not flat & what worked for me was my K-bar you don’t stab the ground with it but rather find dirt then push it down & use it to anchor & help you move forward. It also helps you keep your balance & keep you from falling & giving up your position. I participated in 8 major operations & I am still here so It must have worked.Thanks Jeff & keep up the excellent job you do. PEACE
i heard that SEAL patrols in nam moved almost unbelievably slowly,& a nam era airborne rngr told me his 5 man HK tm took 12hrs,sun up to sundown to move 1-2 footbal fields after insertion–when i went thru ranger school in 82 we did absolutely nothing but crash thru the woods full blast the entire 8wks.when i got back to my SF NG unit I COULD NOT WALK QUIETLY ON AN AMBUSH PATROL #2 man behind a frmr force recon guy,like i HAD done in SFQC year before–that explained what a ranger batt guy told me in the 70s about guys coming back from rngr school to rngr batts had go thru deprogramming before they could funtion in the batt FTXs.thats what you get when rngr school admits all service,eg,2lts from arty,to “get tabbed”.royal marine commandos have the same thing BUT theres the real deal course,marines only,then the other “all service” course–notice the marine common thread of common sence here.gungfriggingho
Hey Barry,
Thanks for the memory flash! I knew Echanis back in the days. we were on a couple ‘freelance advisory’ ‘programs’ together. But we did more drinking and gambling on knife throwing ability and martial arts than anything else. I’m wrapping up a historic book on famous ‘reality practitioners’ during those early days of Americanization of Martial Arts. I also ‘partied’ with J. Keehan in Chicago during the famous ‘dojo wars’… If you knew JD personally, i’d like to contact you for input. He definately was weird, but ahead of his time. And not that far off on ‘energy fields’ in terms of 6th sense. btw, they change the training all the time in spec ops. Based on budjet constraints, current war mission requirements etc. Marines probably being the most updated under seals. Like for instance when i went through ranger training in the late sixties, it was probably nothing like it as when you went through. then in nam where we had ‘brush up’ refresher school before we ever went out on night ambushes alone…
As far as the stealth stalking goes. you ninj affecianados know about P’A Pu and Kuji-Ashi stalking movements… Supposedly the really ‘good’ ninjas can sneak up on you silently while almost running!
Now I say, ‘supposedly’, but let me clarify some reality.
All this silent stalking is interesting but of little practical use. Unless you’re the type of nomadic deer hunter that doesn’t like to wait in ambush. Then, the best way to do it is to watch an experienced stalker, who is also usually an expert tracker. In this case, there are actually more factors involved that take priority over noise. They always stalk so that the relative wind is blowing away from the target and toward the stalker. This automatically takes care of most of the noise, even to highly sensitive animal ears. The scent is far more critical.
Even to humans, by the way. next is eye movement. Didn’t say ‘seeing’, just eye movement. the eyes can detect movement faster and easier than they can actually focus on definition and analysis. Animals are even more tuned to this. So you don’t even move in the stalk until the target is head down eating foliage or doing something else.
So to properly stalk a deer (or anything) in an open field so that you can walk right up to it and pop it with your carry pistol is to make sure the ‘conditions’ are right first. No matter how silent you can walk, thats only the smallest part of it. Most ‘sentry’s don’t have that good of hearing anyway if they had any combat esperience. But back in the jungles, we could literally ‘smell’ the urine of an encamped unit a hundred meters off, even though we couldn’t hear or see anything yet. So all that ‘rubberizing’ of gear don’t mean diddy if you’re wearing that nice expensive cologne your galfried bought you for your b-day. Or, you forgot to wipe your ass properly in the haste of getting mission ready! (especially if the ‘sentry’ has a dog, which most serious ones do, these day, by the way)
So as far as military stories or other stalking to ‘take out sentries’ goes, most of it is ‘slightly’ embelished or outright mythology, or for lack of a better way to do it, a half assed exercise… with the exception of maybe some long mission covert approach snipers. Most missions these days (real ones, not movie ones) just incorporate the sentry take out, if required,in the entire flow of the assault mission. With out any silent stalk requiremetn. As in fast shock and overwhelm. Like the OBL take-out in ‘Pock-istan’. Like a Swat slam, etc. And if there is an advantage to a silent approach, thats what they have diversions and/or silencers for. Stealth Amush strikes, of course, are another thing altogether…
Bottom line, don’t waste too much time practicing this when you could be better wasting your time. Other than that, it’s a fun to bet money on. Its probably better to practice ‘concealment’ in the woods or even urban environments, and counter ambush. I don’t know why any of us would ‘need’ to take out a sentry these days, but you never know when big G comes ‘a knockin’ and you would be prudently advised to temporarily bug out to the woods for ‘observation’ protocol…
Pax anu Luz
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Try using rice paper on a tile floor. IF you can walk across it without tearing any, then you have mastered the technique.
Greets–Another thing I found useful in approaching a human.., during the darkness especially, is to make the short quick ‘cat’ movement in order to gain that quick footage.., is exactly at that moment when target makes a movement/noise.., When target settles down.., then freeze momentarily.., then begin the aforementioned techniques, lol, except when given target is beginning to clue in to ‘another presence, i.e., reaching for a flashlight, ducking down, etc. Thanks all for the reminders, lol.
You said just what I was going to say. I stalked a tired buck deer one day (it was during the rutt and he was panting and he had laid down to rest) in broad daylight, by moving only when the wind was rustling the leaves, and I did it on the balls of my feet, just like has been recommended. I moved also when the squirrels were rustling leaves. Apparently I was down-wind of the deer, he never saw me, nor suspected leaf crunching was caused by a human. When stalking, one should never keep moving one step after another, but take a step or two, then pause a while, followed by several steps and a long pause, etc… Change it up like the deer do and you won’t be as suspicious sounding. I got within about 10 yards of that buck, using trees as concealment and moving only when something else was making noise! I’m a woman and that was my first crossbow hunt. Spend enough time in the woods, on crunchy leaves, and you will learn what kind of noises sound “natural” and which don’t.
when i went thru ranger school we just crashed thru the woods like a heard of elephants for 8wks.i wonder what theyd think about what you wrote.i honestly cant imagine.i thought they should have called air strikes on the place & start over
As a kid, we played “Spotlight” or flashlight tag at night. Stalking, prowling and sneaking around at night was all fun and games. I taught my kids and grandkids and I still use the techniques when I go hunting 50 years later.
i’ll never forget an FTX we went on in the army.we were alternating raiding a facility in the woods at night.on one go the raiders crept thru the woods to the clearing on their feet.the moon was full & they were way visible & very noisy;the next time thru they simply did the same approach but on hands & knees–not ideal but they were almost impossible to see & the noise was amazingly less.
when we got to do it it seemed like we were a lot quieter.
also,if really serious about stalking,go online for moccosans,take ‘em on your real deal ops in your pack.
also,i’ve heard (pun) that making sheepskin outsoles that can be tied onto your boots is very quiet;make an outsole larger than your boot outsole,put in some grommets,lace ‘er up,dont forget your kukri.
Nobody told us but as little kids we used this technique to sneak up on our friends without being detected. We used to call it ‘going on tippy toes.’
Also it’s a good idea to have your mouth wide open so that your breathing cannot be detected. I have done surveillance in a room with other people in it and not been detected whilst listening to their plans using this technique. By the way it’s not for the faint hearted.
Well, that all sounds good, but I’m really fat and if I stepped on a twig it would go off like a firecracker. Shouldn’t I get a suspensor suit like the fat guy in the Dune movie and float over the ground?
There’s some great stuff here. Some of the things that I was tought include items such as if you’re going to crawl up on someone you’ll want to do it on a 4 point, that is it’s a lot quieter to be on your fingers & toes than dragging your torso along the ground.
Another relevant item is when you’re practicing your stalk walk be able to stop your step at any point in the step. Practice freezing and holding at any point in your step. Do it backwards too.
Sneaking up on your pets is fun. Tickle the hairs in their ears or between their toes if they’re sleeping.
Duh. It’s spelled “taught”
The technique Jeff describes is the same technique “we” were taught at the U.S. Army Ranger School (in 1966).