10.1. Decoys must be made by the carver and may be made of any carving material, foam or stretched canvas.
10.2. Decoys will be judged for simplicity, durability, and practicality. 10.3. A decoy that checks, splits, takes on water, and/or has paint deterioration at any time prior to the completion of all decoy judging will be disqualified and forfeit any awards said decoy was awarded. All decoys in the disqualified decoy’s species and category would be re-ordered, so as to move up one place, i.e., second becomes first, third becomes second. There will not be a third place decoy ordered up since the species would have to be re-ordered as well as the whole category re-judged. 10.4. No detailed bills, carved nostrils or nails are allowed. 10.5. Slight mandible separation is permitted. 10.6. No fragile parts. 10.7. Primaries may be undercut as long as they are not fragile. 10.8. Painting schemes must be simplistic. 10.9. Combing, stippling, brushing, ragging, scratching, blending, flocking and use of burnt cork are allowed. 10.10. No feather splits or definitions other than outlining may be used. 10.11. No wood burning or stoning. 10.12. Texturing by means of paint or paste is allowed. 10.13. Decoys must have a facility for an anchor line. 10.14. Decoys will be placed in the tank with their bottoms up. When the decoy is released, it must self-right with the exception that geese and swans must self-right from their side. Final judging will be at a minimum distance of 20 feet with pre-qualification prior to the birds being placed in the water. The judges will do both final and pre-qualification judging. 10.15. These rules may apply to singles, pairs, and rigs. 10.16. Working decoys will be judged in hand (at the tank) for sturdy construction, durability, practicality of keel and ballast weights, anchor line attachments, self-righting, and flotation. Decoys that do not pass minimum structural and/or flotation requirements will be disqualified at this time. 10.17. The judges may return to the tank from the twenty feet distance but must make their final decisions from twenty feet or more.