Welcome to The High Road Proteus.
If your Topper Deluxe features a walnut stock, cut checkering, and a choke tube you actually bought the gun for a very reasonable price.
I happen to like Harrington Richardson and New England Firearm single barrel guns and frankly there are too few gunmakers still offering these types of guns.
In my view if yoiu are able to become proficient at busting clay birds with a single shot you will not have any problem busting them with any form of repeating gun down the road.
Your gun may feature a 3 inch magnum or even 3 1/2 inch magnum chambering.
Avoid using these shells in the gun and stick with 2 3/4 inch 1 ounce to 1 1/4 ounce target and field loads.
This recommendation isn't because the firearm won't handle the magnum loadings, it will.
This recommendation is based on personal use of Topper shotguns and the recoil associated with heavy magnum loadings will in all likelyhood, be greater than a new shooter will be willing or able to bear.
In simple terms, the perceived recoil the shooter feels when firing heavy magnum loads in these types of firearms can be quite severe.
Enjoy your new gun and good luck with the claybird shooting.
