I don't think it's so much an aspect of the feel of the gun but I think it all depends on where you hunt ducks. I love wood shotguns but I would nick, ding and bang one up pretty easily in some of the places that I hunt. My 2 ducks guns I see as tools, I treat them with care, give them love but in the end I won't loose sleep if one(and it has, many times) gets dings on it.

I have a place in Upstate NY where I swear to god at least once every year someone trips on a root under water and dumps their gun, I would have a hard time with that if it was a wood gun. This is just my hunting situation, if I had clear paths to the ponds and nice warm weather where I could justify it then maybe I would consider it.