I planted some clover early last fall with a hand spreader. Same as you say, I had to rely on the sound of it hitting the ground. I stopped after several steps and closed down the broadcaster to about half. Then I walked and spread it covering the area with half the seed, and then again walking perpendicular to the first passes. It came up ok, but I have some thin areas. I'm using it as a cover crop so it doesn't matter much. The area I planted was to be a second garden (both 1/4 acre) to rotate between garden and cover crop. It was easy enough to do that I plowed a third section that is 1/4 acre or so and will plant clover there this spring after I disk it. Then I will have a good 2 years growth of clover when I plow one section under each year, and will plant that year's garden plot to clover each fall. It sounds like a plan, and I'll soon find out how well it works. It is nice to see all that clover start to grow.