FUD Can Do  
  
Three Dimensional   Proven Effective   FUD Strengths   Multi Posture   FUD Necking   FUD Chaining   Magnum Sized   Heavy Duty   Ice Proof   Original Artwork   Anchors & Cartage   Shot Proof   Lightweight Decoys   Hunting The Shallows   Self Righting   Unsinkable Decoys   No Extra Parts   Value For Money   Rapid Deployment   FUDs Can Do  

Three Dimensional
In the world of decoys the NRA FUD is a new arrival whose merits may not be appreciated at first glance. It is a total decoying solution not bound by those limitations faced by all other decoys. It performs as a floater, a shell, a silhouette, a full-body, and a motion decoy all rolled into one. And make no mistake, FUDs are not silhouettes nor the next best generic decoy. They are three-dimension multi-postire decoys that are deployed in three easy steps.
  1: Fold over white base plate locking the panel tab into the opposing slot. 2: Fold over colored chest panel locking it into place in the opposing buckle. 3: Swing down the keel into position locking the base plates in place. Job done.
  Step 1  Step 2  Step 3 

Once deployed you now have a single decoy that can be used in water, on ice, in the shallows, or on dry land in an unlimited range of postures. The posture variations available from FUDs are second to none in the world of decoys. Learn to use these to your maximum hunting advantage.

Some first time FUD users initially struggle with the product trying to pigeon hole it into one of the existing decoy market segments. Is the FUD a floater, a shell, a silhouette, or a full body decoy? This was the question being asked because this is how all other decoy products have been considered. There has never been a decoy product before like the FUD, one that functions as all other styles thus replacing all other styles.

The established segments have nothing to do with the act of decoying or any hunting logic. They have everything to do with overcoming the limitations of conventional decoys and the industry's use of these segments to generate additional and largely redundant sales. The FUD makes a mockery of market segmentation by covering the full range of decoying requirements within the one product. The trade and the FUD's end consumers understand that the FUD can be used in any location, can be deployed in any manner, and it fits all decoy segments. It is the first ever and only product to do so.
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Proven Effective
The FUD's origins are found in Australia on rice bays in the heat of summer.

Australia's Rice Seasons are very different from most forms of game bird hunting worldwide. The task at hand is not one of reaching a bag limit or filling a fridge. The task is to save a rice crop from waterfowl destruction. Accordingly the hunting considerations are vastly different from regular game bird seasons.

  • The primary objective becomes one of killing every duck, not just the dumb ones or juveniles.
  • Almost any decoy can fool juvenile waterfowl. The task is to fool gun-shy decoy-smart waterfowl.
  • Rice fields do not provide cover. Your decoys must work in spite of the hunter's presence.
  • Rice fields are large areas that cannot be fully gunned. Your decoys must brings the birds to you.
  • Gun-shy game birds know what conventional plastic floaters look like, and they know all of the common decoy alarm signals. Your spread must be clear of these alarm signals.
  • Your bag should be decided by how many shells you can carry, not how well your decoys work.
  • If you cannot bag every bird then you are letting down the farmer and it is their crop that will suffer. The last thing needed is average decoys that do an average job or can only fool young birds.
The challenge was never to create a better model duck decoy, it was always to create a more effective means to bag even the smartest of game birds.
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FUD Strengths
For generations the influence of hand carving has created a bias where decoy excellence is measured in the hand or on the mantel. This is field hunting nonsense as all "decoys" should be measured in harvest results alone. To use any other criteria is to have already conceded that the assessment is not about decoying products.

The following are those features delivered by the FUD. It is the pure volume of features that many first time FUD users find staggering since all of them are hunting common sense and yet only one or two are delivered by the vast majority of competitor products on the market today. It is the absence of these features in a single product that has left the market primed to embrace such a compelling alternative.

  • FUDs deploy in a full range of postures to add realism and not look like decoys.
  • FUD features can be seen and reacted to by game birds outside of shotgun range.
  • Deployed FUDs are true three-dimensional decoys that cast the correct shadow and correct reflection on water. FUDs are not silhouettes.
  • FUDs can be set up completely clear of all common decoy alarm signals that are found in decoy spreads of conventional products.
  • FUDs self-right immediately if tipped over by waves, dogs, or incoming birds.
  • FUDs are guaranteed unsinkable.
  • FUDs can handle ice, sunlight, and the elements without cracking.
  • FUDs can be hammered into ice or frozen ground as sentry, standing or feeding birds.
  • FUDs allow hunters to walk-in with their decoys "on-body" and "hands-free" in just one trip with everything ready to start hunting anywhere. They are the most mobile decoy of all.
  • FUDs present true to life images and tones of the target species.
  • FUDs are impervious to fuel.
  • FUD decoys are true magnums instead of life-sized or price driven midgets.
  • FUDs are lightweight, easy to transport, and easily stored away.
  • FUD waterfowl decoys store the rigging inside the decoy where it cannot tangle.
  • FUDs use the wind to move on water more than any other decoy.
  • FUD decoys can be shot at will. They can handle stray pellets and will survive.
  • Properly deployed FUDs will never point straight into the wind like a convoy emulating frightened birds about to take-off.
  • FUDs can be set-up near the edge of marshes and in shallow water.
  • The one rig of decoys can now be used in water, on ice, and then on dry land. Multiple rigs of location specific decoys locking a hunter into a location are now redundant.
  • Hunters can pack-up and relocate decoys quickly if off the flight paths or crowded out.
  • FUDs carry on-product deployment and usage instructions.
  • FUDs will last year after year, they are fade resistant, their image does not flake off, and they will not require an annual paint job or touch up.
  • And FUDs are ready to use out of the box with no extra parts and no assembly prior to use, or disassembly after use.
Plastic blow molded decoys, silhouettes, shells and full-body decoys all have certain field advantages, but they also have their disadvantages. None can be called a true all-round performing decoy. It was the FUD's mission to be the first true all-round decoying solution.

Some hunters would say so many decoying attributes in the one product is simply not possible. It is possible, the FUD exists and it is the proof. The FUD exists and delivers all of these decoying attributes because it was never designed to be another model duck. It was designed to be a field hunting decoy with no compromises and no limitations.
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Multi-Posture
Can your decoys be deployed in a range of postures to add realism? Can you set up your decoys without any game bird alarm signals? Can you deploy the same decoy on land, in the shallows, and floating? Experienced hunters know the strength of multiple postures which is why there are specific feeder designs, duck butts, tuck decoys, and decoys with moving heads. But before any product can claim to be multi-postured it has to be able to emulate the full range of game bird postures found in the wild. Anything less is a compromise.

With multiple points of movement between the head, body and keel, the posture possibilities you can now present to birds overhead is endless and unprecedented.
Body Pivot - With either floating or field standing decoys the body section can be rotated forwards to create great feeding postures, or rotated backwards to emulate standing or sentry birds. Simply position the keel at the required mark on the chest plate. Body Pivot 
Pedestal Pivot - The keel or pedestal also pivots upwards into the body to create great shell postures of birds resting on land or ice. Keel positioning can also be used to adjust the angle of your decoy's body to the water. Pedestal Pivot 
Head Movement - The head section moves forwards and backwards, and can be rotated upwards and downwards to create the most realistic of feeding postures ever found in decoys. True feeders are only possible when the head pivots vertically touching the water or ground. Head Pivot 

Click to play video  This multi-posture capability (including feeding and swimming) distinguishes FUD products from all others. There is no other decoy that has a variable length. There is no other single decoy that can be deployed as a floater, then as a feeder, then as a shell, then as a sentry, and then packed up flat. When it comes to multi-posture decoys the FUD has no equal.
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Necking Motion
Can your waterfowl decoys use the wind to move more than real game birds on water? Not likely. But what about a decoy whose keel is just 1/8" thick and weighs a fraction of the weight of conventional decoys? Because the FUD has a much narrower keel it can spin on a dime and move through the water faster than all other decoys.

necking  Unwind your anchor string and loop it around the neck of your FUD in the manner shown. Make sure to pinch it between the head and shoulder panel and your FUD is now necked and ready for some wild movement. The stronger the wind the more radical the movement.

The key to the FUD's lifelike motion when necked is that you now have an effective tie off point that is high, is to the front of the decoy, and most importantly is off to one side. Being off-centre compels the decoy to drift left or right of the anchor line. The wind combined with the sail-like head of the FUD will grab hold pushing the decoy further to that side. Once it moves out to the travel length of the anchor string it is set in motion.

Just like any yacht does with a keel and a sail the FUD will tack in an arc around the anchor until it reaches the point where the sidewards wind pressure is insufficient to keep it on a starboard or port path. At this point it will immediately spin 180 degrees and start an opposite tack repeating the process to the opposite side of the anchor. The end result is that you now have a decoy behaving like a yacht constantly moving and constantly changing directions. With several FUDs set up in this manner you will have a spread full of movement and non-uniform behavior. You have emulated exactly what is seen in nature with game birds swimming and feeding.

Necking can be achieved with conventional decoys only if you are prepared to glue or screw and attachment to hold the decoy line near the front of the decoy and to one side. You may find attempts to do this on plastic floaters frustrating as it is often difficult to glue anything to blow moulded plastics, screws or attachments may compromise the flotation causing it to sink, and if successfully attached the necking still has to deal with a full length keel that virtually eliminates all movement. Tug boats and barges make poor sailing yachts.
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FUD Chaining
Chaining is the process of joining decoys into a line similar to that used with layout boats. FUDs make chaining a much easier task with each decoy having rigging that is stored inside, having anchors that are flat, and pedestals that will easily accept the anchor of the next decoy.

To deploy chained FUDs simply take the anchor of one decoy and wrap it around the pedestal of the next several times locking the anchor into the string notch leaving the remainder to hang loose. Repeat the process to however many decoys you wish to deploy making sure to vary the length between the decoys so that they do not appear in a uniform train pattern.

Take the anchor of the first decoy in the line and secure it to your layout boat, a log or something solid and your chain spread is complete. Make sure to neck the last decoy in line as it is will be placed under the greatest movement pressure. The realism of FUD chains comes from the nature of the decoy itself and how it reacts to wind and waves. All decoys will move in response to wind and waves but how they move depends entirely on the forces above and below the waterline.

FUDs are light weight with a large surface area above the waterline responding to the slightest gust of wind or wave motion. But unlike conventional floaters FUDs are not handicapped by a full length keel restricting their ability to move about. FUD keels are just 1/8" thick and with such a bias of surface area above the waterline FUDs will move about more than any other decoy. Chained FUDs also respond very differently from conventional decoys. All FUD decoys have a large sail area at the front of the product being the head panel. This panel is not body contoured like conventional decoys and will impart far greater sidewards pressure on the. This pressure then reacts to the anchor strings arranged in the manner shown above driving the movement.

With the full chain pressure applied to such a small keel (2" wide, not 12" to 18" like normal floater keels) the FUD chain becomes a line of separately competing decoys all wishing to move of their own accord in different directions. The end result is that you will have a chain of decoys that will refuse to stay in a straight line. It will whip around in a snake-like manner creating the most realistic of sets imaginable. With a dozen or more decoys in place the effect of the chain whip will have the last decoy moving faster than walking speed. This is unprecedented movement for decoys of any style.

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While FUD chaining is ideal for layout boats there are three other circumstances where this method of decoy deployment comes into its own.

  • Dry Land Rigs - It is now possible to deploy fully functional floating spreads without using a boat or waders. Simply position yourself on the windward side of the marsh and chain out your FUDs from your position. The wind will do the rest. With a few more identical FUDs deployed standing, feeding and resting along the edge combined with a constantly moving set of decoys you are able to now present a mixed spread of moving decoys emulating a mob swimming towards the shore. This is one of the most natural and compelling spreads to present to the game birds overhead and it can now be achieved without boats and without waders.
  • Rivers & Current - The FUD chaining excels is in rivers where the current can be used to impart movement into your decoy spread. The secret is to find a bend in the river or stream where the natural currents will force anything floating out into the middle. Start your FUD chain from the inside bank at the start of the bend using the current to suck your FUD chain out into the middle. Then simply let the current impart the movement into your decoys. The greatest feature of FUD chains used in this manner is that they will be clearly visible from both directions up and down the river imparting natural ripples into the water further enhancing the appeal from above.
  • Wild Weather - Finally, if you are out in the worst possible weather with strong wind and huge waves then use FUD chains to deal with the conditions. FUD chains can handle gale force winds because they are compelled to point into it. More importantly they can handle huge waves because they do not have a full-fronted chest taking the full impact of the waves. The chisel shaped front of the FUD decoy and the narrow stake will simply slice through the wind and waves in the same manner waterfowl do. The level of performance in bad weather previously achieved with 9 pound solid block decoys is now available from 9 ounce collapsible FUDs.
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Magnum Sized
Game birds are widely respected for having great vision. They can detect full colour as well as ultra-violet light, but they have one handicap. Unlike hunters with eyes in front game bird eyes are on each side of their head leaving them with little depth perception. Consequently as long a decoy's shape, tone, posture and shadow are all correct the decoy will work and in the simplest of terms the larger the decoy is the further out it will be seen. This becomes important when hunting in company with competing spreads. With all things equal other than size the hunter with the bigger sized decoys typically produces the best harvest results.

In the 1990's magnum sized decoys were all the rage and a trend that all major brands subscribed to. 10% to 20% oversize qualified as a magnum. 25% or better qualified as super magnums. But the magnum craze broke down in hunting terms when species were intermixed and the magnum ratios were not followed.

While game birds may have little depth perception they do know that teal are around 30% smaller than Mallards. So when smart birds (those already shot off decoys) encountered examples such as 15" teal decoys amongst 14" Mallards, or 22" super magnum Mallards with 26" life-sized Canadas, the decoy's performance fell away. Gun-shy game birds are not stupid and are too often underestimated.

Further the size dilemma faced by all decoy manufacturers is two-fold. The bigger the decoy the bigger cost, and once a size differences are offered it needs maintaining across all species in a range. The same applies to the FUD.

The reality is that apart from FUD all brands do not adopt this principle and their ranges break down being less effective when intermixed. Also, with the increasing price point pressure, size has been sacrificed just like quality. Magnums are no longer the norm. "Regular" or "Life Size" decoys are now the more common size across the decoy landscape, but even here there is no consistency across brands and length variations per species remain.

With this in mind all FUD decoys have been designed to a specific formula that only produces magnum size decoys. All FUDs are a minimum of 10% larger than real life and this magnum ratio has been maintained across the entire FUD range.



Click to play video  When intermixed with other brands FUDs highlight those lacking depth of image, lacking shadow, being too big or too small, being the wrong shape, or simply lacking colour. More so, the colour fastness of FUD decoys has meant that they show no evidence of fading after prolonged use or exposure to the elements. Mainstream plastic floaters are notorious for fading, paint chipping, and loss of image in a short space of time. Mixed sets of FUDs and the competition's products simply highlight the failings of conventional decoys.
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Heavy Duty
There are many decoy lines on the market today that claim to be "heavy duty". But like so many aspects of the decoy industry this claim is rarely substantiated, often unjustly used, and poorly understood by hunters.

There is a clear line between those performance attributes demanded of regular decoying products and those that push the boundaries into heavy duty. Prerequisites that make a decoy work in the most basic of conditions cannot be marketed as optional extras, nor are they "heavy duty", nor can they be dismissed to lower the definition of what constitutes a regular decoy.

  • Decoys used on water must be unsinkable, buoyancy is a prerequisite. If a decoy can sink then it is a compromise being used out of place.
  • Decoys used under shotguns must be able to handle stray pellets. Products that cannot handle pellet damage, that will deflate, or that will sink, are all compromises being used out of place. Animal rights activists can correctly claim cruelty as decoy caution delays the humane despatch of cripples. The FUD eliminates decoy caution.
  • Decoys used outdoors must be able to handle the elements without becoming brittle, without cracking, and without fading. Such failings are all hallmarks of compromises that are out of place and are best left indoors.
  • Decoys must be able to handle regular treatment being deployed, transported, and stored without flaking image or cracking. If a product requires the cotton glove treatment to survive then it is not practical in field terms and again is a compromise out of place.
  • And decoy attributes should not restrict hunters in their choice of location and must be effective when used outdoors without limitation. Being able to better handle ice, or UV light exposure, or wind and waves, does not make a decoy "heavy duty".
Delivery of decoying prerequisites is what makes a product a decoy. Any such claims based on being unsinkable, shot proof, fade proof, or crack proof are misleading. They only gain credibility if hunters are prepared to lower their standards on field decoying requirements. By any reasonable definition "heavy-duty" must mean being able to handle conditions beyond those normally encountered in the field. Being walked on by the hunter, driven over by a vehicle, surviving shotguns at close range, or baked in the sun for months certainly stretches the boundaries of normal decoy use, and the ability to handle such treatment rightly validates the "heavy duty" claim.

There are solid plastic and timber decoys that can handle this treatment but they all come with weight and price penalties. Now there is the FUD that has all of the prerequisites in place. FUDs are unsinkable, FUDs are shot proof, FUDs are crack proof, FUDs are fade proof, and FUDs will not flake or lose their image.
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Ice Proof
Further, FUDs do push the boundaries on regular decoy use and can rightly claim being "heavy duty". They can be hammered into frozen ground, ice, solid ground, stumps and logs, FUDs can be shot at will with the pellets simply passing through the product, and FUDs can be walked on or driven over by SUV's and survive to fight another day. Can your standing decoys be hammered into logs, stumps, ice or frozen ground without breaking?

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The use of 1/8" thick steel parts has removed all concerns over FUD usage when being staked into hard ground. The FUD's ability to handle rough treatment is most beneficial in frozen conditions where pedestals are typically hammered into the ground or ice. This approach sets FUDs apart from all other field-staked alternatives using plastic, wood, or aluminum stakes that often fail.

With the arrival of FUD decoys and their steel pedestals the shell market now has real competition. FUDs are the first reliable product that firstly allows for true standing postures on ice and frozen ground because of their steel pedestals, and secondly is not destroyed when frozen. No longer do hunters need to deploy decoys imitating sitting birds on ice. The irony of shells is that a full set of sitting birds on ice is one of the least effective decoying postures to entice incoming birds to land, yet because of the lack of a suitable alternative the shell market segment has grown. FUDs can handle freezing conditions unlike any other decoying product.

FUDs can handle treatment that would despatch all plastic blow moulded equivalents to the scrap heap. FUDs can handle this treatment because it was designed to be a total decoying solution, not just another model duck plastic decoy with the same shortcomings all hunters have come to expect of plastic floaters.
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Original Artwork
Do your decoys present true to life images and correct tones of the target species being hunted? There is no other decoy line that has the value for money detail and tone found in FUDs. Using standard packaging and textile printing methods without optical brighteners the FUD delivers the highest quality images of all decoys on the market.

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Do your decoys look like anything like these above examples? Click on any of these to see the extraordinary detail and tone delivered in FUD decoys.

While detail does add to a decoy's human appeal, it remains a 5 yard factor and does not influence birds outside of shotgun range. Tone however is a different matter. Matching the tone to the target species is a most basic requirement of any decoy but is often overlooked or compromised. How often have you seen Canada decoys adopting the grey scale tones of polyethylene plastics. Canada geese are primarily brown in color and true decoy representations of this species should reflect this fact. The tone of FUD Canadas is correctly brown. And do not let anyone fool you that game birds are color blind. Your gun dog may be but game birds are not and can see the difference.

Further to simply having high quality original artwork, FUD artwork images are modified to exactly suit the manufacturing processes and maximize the production yields, while at the same time highlighted those features that make the product more effective in the field.
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Anchors & Cartage
FUDs forward a completely different approach to anchors, rigging, transport and storage when compared to conventional decoys.

The following photographs shows two dozen conventional decoys compared with two dozen fully rigged FUDs. The clear advantages that a fold up product has in terms of transport and storage are obvious.

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FUDs take the task of decoy transport and rigging use to new levels of functionality. FUDs are carried on "Fudslinger" belt hooks hands-free rather than hauled in and out on the hunter's back in bags or dragged in punts. Better still the FUD stores the rigging inside the product where it cannot tangle with other decoys. Finally there is a decoy that eliminates string tangle.

Hunters can now wade or walk to their hunting position dragging nothing and start to deploy their decoys off-body with everything at their finger tips to simulate floaters, feeders, swimmers, sentries, shells, whatever. No extra parts, no assembly, no pre-rigging, no scouting in advance, and no restrictions on where they can or cannot hunt.

For those hunters who often hunt in flooded pastures, shallow timber swamps, or in pot-holes miles in from vehicle access, the lightweight and compact nature of FUDs are an enormous advantage allowing for larger set sizes for the same weight and volume penalty. The FUD decoy solution is a total solution. It is aimed at making the hunter as mobile and effective as possible in all hunting locations.

FUD anchors are deliberately manufactured flat to allow them to easily store inside the body of the collapsed decoy. FUD pedestals have a notch on top of the foot that the final 1" or 2" of anchor string is looped over. Once looped and the pedestal is pulled up through the back of the decoy for hanging on the Fudslinger, this locks the anchor in place as it cannot move up to disengage the string out of that notch. As long as the decoys are carried in a vertical manner such as a Fudslinger then anchor string will not untangle.
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Shot Proof
Can your decoys handle ice, sunlight, and the elements without cracking? Are your decoys bullet proof so that cripples can be shot with no concern for your decoy? As unusual as it may sound, the vast majority of decoy products are used on water and under shotguns yet they are not bullet proof and are sinkable.

The FUD is unique in that it can be shot at will. Crippled birds hiding behind FUD decoys can be dispatched without a care. All pellets hitting the FUD will simply pass through the product and onto the intended target. The only reason that replacement rivet sets are provided in the FUD Accessory range is that hunters are quickly learning they no longer need to pull their shots if the target gets to close to their decoys. FUD decoys can handle this treatment.

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Two shot but still fully functioning FUDs. This is treatment that will send most other decoys to the bottom.
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Lightweight Decoys
There is no other decoy that folds up like the FUD into a compact unit for transport and storage. All other three dimensional full body alternatives leave the hunter with their workshops and storage rooms full of decoys that simply cannot be stacked; many hunters have to look under their decoys to find their boat, and notions of walking over the top of decoys or shooting cripples amongst decoys would leave many hunters bemused, yet this is exactly the type of treatment the FUD can handle.

When the FUD is folded up it takes up a fraction of the equivalent space of normal decoys. This opens new opportunities when larger spread sizes are required such as at the start of the season or with geese. Waterfowl are often attracted to larger spreads looking for safety in numbers and FUDs make large numbers a breeze to manage.

The vast majority of hunting in the United States is done on public land where the hunter must walk in with everything they need, and then remove it all at the end of their hunt. Those hunters who are active on public lands applaud the pragmatic benefits that the FUD offers them when "walking in".

With further improvements in the pedestal design, anchor design, and the configuration of the FUD decoy, the reduced all up weight for FUD Mallards is now 9 ounces and FUD Canadas 22 ounces. They are 30% to 40% lighter than similarly rigged injection moulded floaters, and are less than one third of the weight of cork or solid timber equivalents.

With these weight savings, hunters are electing to carry more FUD decoys for the same weight penalty. Again, it is all about bigger decoy sets with greater drawing power on game birds, and in these terms the FUD's weight advantages place it ahead of all other decoy solutions. The reductions in storage space have been recognized. When this product is folded up it takes up approximately ¼ of the equivalent space of a normal floater or full-body decoys. For a given decoy storage area, our product allows hunters to use many more decoys.

Any comparison between conventional decoys and the FUD simply highlights the obvious. There is no comparison between conventional decoys and FUDs when it comes to transport by hand into a hunting location. The FUD is a purpose designed decoying solution that increases a hunter's mobility and does not compel them to scout in advance or make multiple trips to the chosen hunting location.
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Hunting The Shallows
Plastic molded decoys with full length keels only work when floating on water. They do not work in the shallows, or on the margins of swamps and wetlands where resting and feeding game birds are most often seen. Most hunters will recall where they last saw mobs of contented game birds in the wild. The vast majority will agree that it was along the edge of marshes and swamps and in the shallows.

But the marsh edge and shallows are out of bounds for conventional decoys. When a plastic floater is used along the edge or in the shallows it will immediately tip over sending out more alarm signals. This same result occurs when floaters are used on ice or dry land. It is the conventional decoy's full length keel that prohibits hunters from using them where contented birds are most often seen and where decoys work the best. The FUD is not bound by any such location limitations and can be used where the most game bird traffic is found.
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Self-Righting
Do your waterfowl decoys self-right when tipped over by waves, your dog, or incoming birds?

The ability to self-right is another feature that FUDs provide without question. When a deployed FUD decoy is tossed into the water it will right itself correctly regardless of how it lands. This is most important during set-up, especially if being done in the dark, or when being done quickly. The vast majority of floaters do not possess this attribute. Once they are tipped up they stay belly up and remain a beacon warning incoming birds away. This then requires the hunter to leave their blind or move their boat to upright the offending decoy.

The FUD's self-righting ability is achieved by matching the decoy's pedestal weight to the buoyancy of the product's base plates ensuring that the centre of gravity is below the waterline compelling the product to self-right immediately.
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Unsinkable Decoys
Are your waterfowl decoys unsinkable? If not then how do you quickly dispatch cripples hiding amongst your spread?

For a product that is typically used on water and under shotguns it is unfortunate that just one stray pellet will send most plastic floaters to the bottom. Hunters should reasonably expect and indeed demand that their decoys do not sink. But this is a product attribute only delivered by hand carved and high-end solid decoys and not found in any low-end mass-produced decoy lines. If your waterfowl decoys sink then they are a compromise. They are not a true decoying tool for hunters.

Equally waterfowl decoys should not be applauded for being unsinkable. This implies that the unsinkable feature is an optional extra. It is not. It is mandatory for floating decoys and no decoy can call itself a true waterfowling decoy if it can sink.

Sinking product frustrates hunters enormously each time a decoy is lost because of either stray pellets hitting the decoy causing it to take on water and sink, because of inferior non-UV protected plastics that become brittle and crack after exposure to sunlight, because of inferior plastics and keel designs that cannot handle ice or freezing conditions, or because of unstable polymers that simply cannot handle rough treatment in the field. The FUD is designed to handle the rough treatment and will not sink.
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No Extra Parts
Were your decoys ready to use out of the box with no extra parts and no assembly? By having a total decoy solution in the one product that can be rigged for field use or for combined field and water use, the FUD has been able to use one of the major criticisms of decoys to advantage.

The industry has for years perpetuated a belief that hunters needed floaters for water, silhouettes for field use, and shells for use on ice. Also, that additional stakes, head postures, specially designed carry bags, or movement devices were then added as required.

All of this helped make decoy use burdensome, and the FUD has openly challenged those long-standing decoying beliefs. The hunter should not require a separate bag for stakes or heads in addition to the decoy bodies, they should not need to assemble the decoys in the field prior to use, nor should they need elaborate mechanical devices to impart movement into their decoy sets. The FUD has met the challenge of being a complete product that can be used out of the box. There are no extra parts necessary.
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Value For Money
Did you pay generic hot-buy prices for premium quality magnum decoys? Did you have to then pay extra to add feeders, tuck decoys, duck butts, or motion decoys to bring realism and movement to your set? Did you put your back out trying to move all your decoys to your hunting location? Do your current decoys limit the locations where you can hunt? And can your decoy's main features be seen and reacted to by game birds over 100 yards away? It is little wonder that many hunters find decoy use a pain.

Of all of the desirable features that the FUD does possess, it is the ability to bring game birds nto range that is paramount. Beyond this all other decoy considerations relate to the ease of use, product quality, life expectancy, and the value for money it represents. 5 yard factors should not be mistaken for decoying attributes.

The high cost of decoys has always offered an incentive to produce a "fair valued" decoying alternative. The market prospects of such a product are clearly understood by all and advances in that direction have led to the generic decoy which trades off paint quality, size, and product life to produce a price point to secure sales.

For those consumers who do not care about size, or quality, or product life span, these generic lines do have a niche market. But it is the principles behind generic decoys that are now having the greatest impact in decoy manufacture. More and more decoy lines are making sacrifices in pursuit of price point and as the retail price has dropped so has quality, size, customer satisfaction, and decoy life expectancy.

It is the nature of conventional decoy offerings, their model duck format, their limited functionality, their inherent shortcomings, and their comparative high cost that have all helped to lay the foundations for what the FUD has become. The FUD is not another generic model duck decoy, it is a product that does the job. All of the job all of the time in all locations.
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Rapid Deployment
The FUD's easy handling and deployment characteristics are gaining greater appreciation in the field, more so in cold or freezing conditions common in North America.

FUDs have been designed to be the easiest of decoys to deploy and retrieve, while also being a total solution that can be deployed anywhere. All FUDs are right handed being deployed and retrieved in the same manner, and have large release tabs to allow easy handling with gloves on, or in the dark. The FUD's easy handling and deployment characteristics give hunters a degree of mobility long since lost with conventional decoys. FUDs can be deployed and recovered in a fraction of the time compared to decoys of the past. FUDs are a total solution with anchors and string stored inside the product.

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The process to deploy a FUD is as simple as 1, 2, 3... Fold over white base plate locking the panel tab into the opposing slot, fold over the coloured chest panel locking it into place in the opposing buckle, and swing down the keel into position locking the base plates in place.

Click to play video  One dozen FUDs can take as little as 60 seconds to deploy and around 3 minutes to pack up. Conventional decoys, multi-part silhouettes and full bodies can take 5 to 15 minutes to deploy and many times longer to pack up. With a little practice FUD users will take around 2 minutes to deploy and around 4 minutes to pack up a dozen decoys whereas conventional decoys, multi-part silhouettes and full-bodies can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to deploy and many times longer to pack up.
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Sure!, no decoy can do all this?
Some will say all of these attributes in the one product is just not possible. As a decoy manufacturer we say that all of these attributes is what makes for a decoy that does the job. All of these attributes are valid and must be provided before any decoy can claim that it is a decoy. 5 yard factors do not count, and model ducks and lounge room excellence should not be confused with hard-core field hunting requirements.

Plastic blow molded decoys, silhouettes, shells and full-body decoys all have certain field advantages, but they also have their disadvantages. None can be called a true all-round performing decoy. It was the FUD's mission to be the first true all-round decoying solution. Better in terms of value for money decoys, that are far easier to use, provide far greater functionality, and can meet the most demanding of deployment needs. The FUD is the first ever decoy that can be used anywhere by being "game to be different".
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