I'm not worried about wearing out my Beretta, but shotguns are easy to ding, scratch and possibly even rust when out in the woods or being handled by those who don't know any better. Also, I want the knock-a-round shotgun to have roughly the same dimensions as my Beretta, which has been fitted to me. With a $300 O/U, I can cut down the stock myself (if needed) to get the dimensions as close as possible to my Beretta. At $500, that's a good chunk of change which is enough to make me pay someone to do this for me.