The Autumn Wings Series 72 Unfinished Kits
We have burlapped foam series 72 bodies assembled with keels now in kit
form, ready for you to prime and paint. Also included are the correct
Autumn Wings painted or unpainted wood head of your choice
and the mounting screw. The keel is attached to the body and
pre-drilled to accept the screw. If you prefer a bolt with threaded
insert, contact us.
The story behind the Series 72 decoy
Once upon a time the Herter's "Family" in Waseca MN sat down to create the
"ultimate" duck decoy. It needed to be
lightweight, unsinkable, and durable. They settled on a solid foam construction and maybe because it was just over 7” wide they called it the Model 72 (Herter’s Model 72 is a trademark of Cabela’s last we checked) and it became the favorite of serious duck hunters in many flyways for the latter half of the 20th century. Untold thousands were sold in most any species of waterfowl that are hunted in North America. Since the foam is subject to breakage over time, they also added a burlap wrapped option to the line that became a family heirloom for many hunters since they are virtually indestructible. Sadly the production line was halted a few years back.
The Autumn Wings Series 72
While paying
homage to the past, we take burlap wrapped foam decoys to a new level of
excellence by using our tried and true wooden decoy heads, signature keel, and
an upgraded airbrush paint job. We also tweaked the dimensions a bit to result
in a "chunkier" style reminiscent of our old Fat Boy cork decoys. We prefer the
stable platform and "content feeling" the 8" wide body affords. Since one of
the goals of our business is to create working decoys of style and character
that will be worthy of passing down to the next generation, there was no
question that we would wrap the solid foam bodies in burlap. This insures the
durability and longevity of the decoy without sacrificing its reasonable weight.
Series 72 decoys weigh about 1 lb. each;
this is 50% lighter than our equivalently sized wooden decoys. As a bonus, the burlap accepts paint well and
the coarse texture adds a realistic appearance that does not shine. We adapted our wood keel design to work with
the Series 72.