• When using FUDs, use their multi-posture capabilities to your advantage. If you wish to imitate normal decoys then simply set them all up in the salute position looking straight ahead. But if you want a decoy set that stands out to the bird in the air, adjust your decoy necks and pedestals to introduce as much variation into your set as you can. Experiment with feeding birds, swimmers, sentry birds, birds at rest, etc. This multi-posture variation will stand your set out from the crowd because it more closely resembles what is seen in nature. Remember that posture is the visual aspect of your decoys that is seen from the greatest distance, and it is the variations in posture that the real birds are looking for.
• You now have a single decoy that works both in and out of the water, again use this to your advantage. Unless you are out in open water, use your environment to improve your set. Have some swimming and feeding, others sitting on logs, stumps, or the shoreline as shells, and others as standing or feeding birds waddling along the water's edge. This is how most ducks are seen in the wild and this is what birds on the wing are looking for.
• Mix and match your set to suit your hunting condition. If you typically see more than one species in a location then set your decoys to match. Remember that waterfowl will tend to feed together with their own kind so do the same with your decoys. Above all maintain you size standards amongst your decoys. Game birds have been proven to have poor depth perception which is why magnums and super magnums work. But game birds are not stupid and will recognize 26" Mallards beside 26" Canadas and 14" Mallards beside 19" Mallards as un-natural and react accordingly.
• Match your calls to your species of decoys.
• Try to set up your decoys down-wind from your hunting position. FUDs will naturally head into the wind, as do most incoming birds when they are looking to land. If you are hunting in a strong wind then this is essential.
• Spread your decoys out, leaving an open area in your "hot zone". This is where you want the birds to pitch in, and it is your decoy's job to make it look like the best place to land. If you have your decoys too close together then your set will signal an alarm to incoming birds. Frightened birds tend to "bunch up" before taking off.
• If you are hunting on rivers where current is a concern or you are using a sneak boat, try chaining your decoys out into position. This is where you drop the anchor of one decoy through the pedestal slot of the next creating a daisy chain effect. For chaining you will need to have FUD anchors or essentially flat alternatives that can pass through the pedestal slot.
• If you have forgotten your waders or they have sprung a leak try dry land chaining. Position yourself on the windward side of the lake or marsh and chain your decoys out into position away from your hide or shooting position.
• Don't underestimate the power of confidence decoys such as coots and swans. These decoys are valuable assets to attracting game birds to what appears a safe environment.
• Practice your FUD deployment and packing up without looking at the decoy. All FUD decoys are right handed meaning that when you pick up your decoy from the rear, the unfolding tab is on the right hand side. With a bit of practice you will be able to deploy and pack up in a fraction of the time of normal decoys. You will also be able to do it in the dark or with gloves on.
• Modify your hunting coat for FUDs and Fudslinger Carry Hooks. You will find that FUDs are best carried under the arms or on the hips where they will not clatter from your walking motion.
• Set up a FUD storage area at home, in your garage or workshop. This is nothing more than somewhere to hang your Fudslingers which hold your decoys. You do not need to remove your decoys off Fudslingers at any time other than when being used in the field.
• Write your name and telephone number on the white inner panel with a permanent marker pen.

And make sure you know where your Fudslinger is when your decoys are deployed. Nothing is harder than trying to carry a dozen individual decoys because you have lost your Fudslinger. Note: An empty Fudslinger can fall off a gun-belt in the field, we recommend storing your Fudslinger in a safe location. Each Fudslinger comes with a tie-off hole at the top. This is for you to lace your Fudslinger to your belt or jacket so that it cannot fall off.
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FUD Transport
There are two basic limitations to decoy transport that have always existed, and it does not matter who you are, or how you work your decoys, weight and volume will always decide how many decoys you use. But if your decoys weigh half of normal floaters, take up a quarter of the room, and are custom designed to facilitate transport, deployment and storage, surely you are now able to deploy many more decoys for the same effort. Equally, you should be able to put out your current set size with a fraction of the current effort.

You can now carry all of your duck or goose decoys on your body totally "hands-free". This allows you to carry your gun, your ammo, whatever you need and do it all in the one trip. And since your decoys are multi-posture, multi-function, you can deploy on the spot to suit the prevailing conditions and decoying requirements. No longer will your choice of hunting location be determined by your decoy.
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FUD Deployment
The unique, lightweight and easy-to-transport design of FUDs makes them easy to use away from permanent hides or blinds. You will appreciate their portability when you have to carry them for miles into public wetlands, carry them out at the end of the hunt, or use them in rivers with strong currents. Getting to swamps or flooded corn fields with no boat access is much easier with these lightweight decoys.

Imagine the benefits of one decoy that could be set up as a swimmer, a feeder, a floater, a shell, a bird at rest, all of these postures on land or on water. Put yourself in the duck's position. You see a crowd with everyone sitting in the same position like clones looking in the same direction. After seeing and being shot off decoy sets from one end of the country to the other you would most likely look for another more realistic crowd. Smart ducks can recognize conventional decoys from miles. With the FUD you now have a product that does not portray the image of conventional decoys.

The FUD with its pivoting head, neck posture slots, and pivoting pedestal is the only truly multi-postured product available. It is the only decoy that offers the hunter an unlimited number of posture combinations within the one decoy. And it offers them in a way that the hunter can adjust to suit the prevailing conditions and environment, on the spot. There is no need to scout ahead or set up decoys in advance. Learn to use your FUD to the fullest - don't be afraid to experiment.

The pedestal can be positioned variably within the base panel pedestal slots. This in turn produces many more postures of the target species when deployed. eg: if moved to the forward extreme, it produces a front down floating posture very typical of birds swimming or feeding. If moved to the centre or rear of the base, it will typically emulate a bird at rest by raising the front or chest of the decoy. The body of the decoy would then float level with the water surface.

When used in the field (3D silhouette mode), again the moveable heads and pedestals combine to produce an enormous range of postures for a single decoy. Standing, feeding, preening, shell, and resting postures are all now possible thanks to the pedestal design combined with the variable characteristics of our decoys.

Shell postures for use on solid ground or ice are achieved by a combination of pedestal design and hip pivot point positioning. When deployed in this manner, the pedestal is left in a horizontal position within the body of the deployed decoy. This practice allows our product to function on ice, the same as any other shell decoy. But don't accept the norm that shells are the best set up for ice. No one likes sitting their rear-end on ice, including waterfowl. You now have a product with a steel stake that can be hammered into ice or frozen fields producing standing decoys. Use this to your advantage. Mix your shell and standing postures to maximum advantage.
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FUD Components
Matte Finish - Gloss is an influence that works against the hunter scaring game birds off. Many decoys today are made from materials where gloss is a natural consequence caused by the unavoidable properties of UV cured inks on solid laminates. The use of fabric laminated stocks in all NRA FUD models reduces the reflected light levels from 100% to less than 10%, which is considered less than real birds.

Decoy gloss is also created by flat panel ambient light. This is when the decoy has flat surfaced flanks that irrespective of image and finish will reflect common light levels. The fabric foam material used in NRA FUDs allows us to introduce curved flanks that totally eliminate this effect. NRA FUDs when deployed look like shells, not like folded cardboard.

Decoy Artwork - Each FUD decoy starts life as a series of posture profiles. Our experienced team of hunters, artists and waterfowl experts all contribute to give us the best possible profiles and posture characteristics for the decoy. We further validate our templates with ornithologists, game experts, and against our library of reference material.

To better emphasize the tone features that attract game from distance into range, we approach the imaging process from a completely different direction. FUD uses the services of a waterfowl artist to provide us with the best possible images and tones to attract game. Our experience has taught us that image tones improved for hunting purposes are superior to straight photographic reproductions. This approach is unique among decoy manufacturers who mostly focus on detail which is a 5 yard factor. Our desire remains to best attract game, not simply imitate a target bird in the hand or in the hide.

Head & Body - FUD head and body panels are manufactured from a specially designed closed-cell foam. The outer surface is finished with a non-glare surface prior to application of our original artwork. The closed-cell foam is completely waterproof and stray pellets will not affect flotation and performance. This material is extruded to a specific profile ideally suited to FUD manufacture which combines the strength and lightweight of closed cell foam with the folding and printing characteristics of our decoys.

Metal Parts - The decoy pedestal, which also acts as a keel, and our anchors are all manufactured from tough steel and coated for corrosion protection.

When deployed as a floating decoy, it is the pedestal's job to keep the decoy in an upright position. This characteristic is achieved by matching the pedestal weight and centre of gravity to the decoy floatation area used for buoyancy. The decoy must self-right should it land upside down when being deployed, or be swamped by retrieving dogs, moving boats, or incoming birds. This is a key distinguishing feature that makes FUD decoys superior to most other floaters.

The pedestal is an integral part of the decoy, and along with the head portion is permanently attached to the body. The hunter does not require a separate bag for pedestals in addition to the decoy bodies. Nor do they need to assemble the decoys in the field prior to use. The pedestal is made from steel rather than plastic, which is a significant failing of most other standing decoys. Our pedestals are made tough to enable field deployment in hard or frozen ground where plastic often breaks on deployment or on packing up after freezing.

Pedestals are E-Coated (electro-deposited semi-gloss epoxy paint) to further improve the life of our product.
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3rd Generation Improvments
As a precursor to NRA FUD our quest in 3G was to firstly close out every known criticism of the FUD, and to secondly incorporate every item possible off our wish-list of features to make the absolute perfect FUD. Below is a comparison of the earlier 2G version (left) versus our new 3G format (right) plus a list of some of the many differences that make the NRA FUD 3G format the best FUD ever.

• Price - We learned the hard way that no decoy feature and no sales pitch can match the purchasing power of price when it comes to mass market volumes. It does not matter if it is a dozen or a six pack, quality or junk, magnums or midgets, if attracts game or scares them off, nothing is more powerful than entry point pricing. Our 3G goal was to establish a product format that could deliver a market breaking price basis. 3G has done this.
• Size - FUD sizes under 2G were not uniform varying from -7% (smaller than life-size) to 22% (magnum). All species have been redesigned in 3G to be 10% oversize or larger. The FUD Canada has gone from 26" to 32" which is a true magnum and is a rarity amongst the larger decoys. The FUD Turkey is likewise a 32" magnum without any true competition.
• Total Market - The cost metrics of 3G should not consign it to the bottom of the decoy market now heading towards disposable junk decoys. The FUD remains a premium quality magnum decoy that can match it with the best on quality, beat all others on performance, and still match the worst magnums on price. This is a market disruptive quality product that replaces all others.
• 6 Pack Mobs - We have standardised on a 6 pack SKU format to further reduce the entry price point in FUD. There is no hunting logic that says 12 is the best number, devotees of dozens can buy two six packs, and our entry price point is effectively halved. Our experience and overwhelming feedback is that once a hunter tries FUDs they will again buy FUDs again because the product is not just another "model duck" decoy. It allows them to do so much more.
• Custom Rivets - The 2G product standard has suffered in the past from rivets. The original post & screw rivets used by Blackwater on launch proved unsuited to this application. The snap rivet solution then adopted provided the required holding strength but looked unsightly. 3G's perfect rivet solution is transparent polycarbonate 3 part rivets that do not detract from the FUD's appearance.
• 4.2mm Base Stock - 2G base stock was 5.5mm thick governed by rivet barrel length. The 3G product standard uses purpose designed indestructible rivets of 15.8mm (5/8") allowing us to move to 4mm base stock with significant ramifications in cost. Having less polymer reduces foam cost, allows for thinner metal parts to be used (2.5mm instead of 3.2mm), produces smaller SKU cubes, and weighs less. The 6 pack box has been reduced from 4" to 3.5" in height. This is significant in pallet nesting, in container volumes, in warehouse space, in store shelf space, and in US domestic shipping.
• Hinge Creasing - 2G FUDs suffered from base plate billow. This is where the base plates would naturally curve out when deployed in a shell configuration. This curvature causes the decoy to roll onto its side when deployed as a shell. The new 3G material combined with diagonal creasing cuts in the hinge have eliminated this issue completely. FUD shells are now as good as any other FUD posture, and FUD deployment is many times easier because the base plates no longer wish to permanently curve out.
• Body Flank Curvature - 1G and 2G FUDs looked reasonable in profile but from above they looked more like house bricks than decoys. The straight line folds of earlier formats compelled the product to have a brick shape. The flexible nature of fabric laminated foam has allowed us to eliminate this effect creating the most realistic of FUDs ever.
• Image Resolution - All 2G production was printed in 37 lines per inch resolution. With the development of 3G this resolution was challenged as it simply did not pay justice to the quality of our Artist's original artwork. 3G demanded printing resolution of 100 dots per inch ("dpi"). By changing the printing technology and the product design processes 3G has now delivered 200dpi. 3G image quality is now comparable with the highest quality hand painted decoys selling for in excess of $50 per decoy.
• Image Quality - 2G printing suffered from colour shift caused by registration errors common in manual or poorly controlled screen printing. Image quality issues have been solved by replacing the printing technology. Ie: we are making the FUD easier to manufacture. While image is a 5-yard factor that makes decoys sell in the store, it is tone that is the influencing factor that makes the product work in the field. Registration errors cause colour shift which compromises the tone of the decoy, and game birds are not as dumb as most decoy manufacturers think. Tone shift says "these are decoys!!!" just like faded decoys do. Tone shift is now minimized in 3G.
• Closed Chest - All earlier versions of FUD looked incorrect from the front and the rear with the triangle shape detracting from the aesthetics. It made no difference to incoming game birds being too high to notice, but to hunters (our consumers) at ground level they did notice and the product did not look right. The closed chest now possible with flexible fabric laminated foam greatly enhances the product's appearance and adds greatly to the field performance when necked or chained. Wind and waves can no longer pass through the product creating the most mobile motion driven decoy of all on the market.
• Diagonal Head Base - Feeding postures in 2G FUDs were compromised by the shoulder rivet positioning and head panel design. All head panels now have a diagonal base that allows it to rotate 45 degrees before contacting the base plates. The rivet positioning is now mathematically controlled by the 43 point Species Design Checklist used to ensure range consistency and uniform functionality across the entire range.
• Biased Base Plates - All 3G models now incorporate a 12 degree standard bias in the base plates. ie: 1G and 2G base plates had parallel sides, 3G has a 12 degree narrowing towards the front. This narrowing is to combat the front-up appearance of all 2G products creating far more ornithologically correct and field effective profiles of the target species. 2G products were far too high in the shoulder and made for a poor looking decoy in comparison to 3G. Biased base plates also greatly enhance the feeder and swimmer postures where the head panels are extended forward in deployment.
• Black & White Foam - The 2G material format used brown foam for the majority of species. Investigations into polymer sourcing and foam extrusion highlighted that the pigments required for brown foam added nearly 20% to the foam cost. Black adds next to nothing. Black foam in fact works better in the field and we have chosen to standardise on black for every 3G species apart from those obvious white birds.
• 3G Fudslinger - And NRA FUD has developed a new plastic floating Fudslinger to replace the earlier metal version. No more lost Fudslingers in the marsh from sunken slingers, and no more snagging of decoys or bent Fudslingers. Just another step taken making the most functional decoy solution that extra step better.

FUD's Origins
The FUD was never designed to simply be another model duck. It was designed to be an effective hunting tool, to be a decoying solution, and to work in all locations.

Like millions of other waterfowl hunters worldwide the inventor was not satisfied with the available range of decoying solutions, and consequently did not use conventional decoys. Coming from Australia rather than North America, the range of locations that he hunted was vastly different and no single decoy style could ever work in all of his favourite locations. Importantly however, he was not blinded by the model duck myth, nor the convention of accepting compromises in floater, shell, silhouette, or full body form.

He wanted an aid to hunting that did the entire job. Not just one part suited to just one location. Further he hunted Australian rice crops trying to save the crop from waterfowl destruction. This meant killing every bird and not just the dumb ones or juveniles. The challenge was never one of creating a better "model duck", it was to create a "true" decoy that could be used anywhere and would fool decoy-smart gun-shy game birds.

The inventor decided to make his own decoys but not silhouettes considering them junk. He wanted a three dimensional decoy with a moveable head that could create a feeding posture. One that worked in and out of water and that would fold up flat for easy transport and storage. After 6 months of trial and error, extensive field testing, and using the cheapest of materials, he finally developed the FUD decoy prototype. Field results left no doubt that this was one exceptional decoy. That original desire has now evoled into the NRA FUD.

Generation	Prototype	1st	2nd	3rd
Model Shown	Maned Goose Hen	Pacific Black Duck	Pacific Black Duck	Mallard Hen
Example
Artwork	Stencil Painted	Photo Composite	Original Artwork	Original Artwork
Sheet	Corrugated Plastic	Corrugated Plastic	LDPE/XLPE	Fabric/EVA
Buoyancy	Marginal	Unsatisfactory	Excellent	Excellent
Matte Finish	Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory	Marginal	Excellent
Thickness	Various	4.0mm	5.5mm	4.2mm
Waterproof	Silicone Sealant	Heat Crimp (Suspect)	Excellent	Excellent
Printing/Image	Hand Painted	Low Resolution	Marginal	Excellent
Ink Adherence	Unknown	Unsatisfactory	Corona Failures	Excellent
Ink Solubility	Unknown	Unsatisfactory	Excellent	Excellent
UV Stable	Unknown	Excellent	Marginal	Excellent
Dyecutting	Hand Cut	Heated Platten Press	Roller Cut	Platten Press
Rivets	Melted Sprinklers	Ratchet Rivets	Post & Screw	Custom NRA FUD
Metal Parts	Fencing Wire	2mm Laser Cut	3.2mm Dye Stamped	2.5mm Stamped
Unsinkable	Unsatisfactory	Unsatisfactory	Excellent	Excellent
Self Righting	Non Existent	Unsatisfactory	Excellent	Excellent
Duck Weight	194gm	177gm	217gm	188gm

Preliminary investigations highlighted that this product did not exactly fit any of the four major decoy styles, and investigations in both Australia and the United States confirmed that this was the first ever product that applied to all styles of decoys. It was apparent that once launched this product would become an alternate style that would directly challenge all others and challenge the decoy industry's practice of market segmentation. It needed a name that would fit as that new style of decoy.

Having first desired a decoy that would fold up flat for transport, the result was a fold up decoy producing the FUD acronym.
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