As others have said, it is usually illegal, not to mention unsportsmanlike, to hunt ducks with anything but a shotgun, and to hunt them any other way but on the wing (survival scenarios excepted of course.) As far as shot damage goes, in the old days of lead shot, you'd mostly get pass-thru. For about 20 years however the FWS has mandated steel (non-toxic) shot. Since steel is only about 75% as dense as lead, it penetrates comparatively poorly. I quit hunting ducks partly because of that.

But now there are new types of non-toxic shot which are denser than steel (Bismuth and tungsten.) I may have to take it up again.

Of course this only really concerns the hunting of waterfowl. None of this has anything directly to do with hunting pheasant, chucker, or other upland game. For the most part you can still use lead shot on these tasty critters, at least where I live.

Regards, Vince