GC, welcome to the sickness! I doubt you overpaid for your gun. You can go to the For Sale forum and look at a very fancy VS gun that's listed. Yours isn't at that level, but most of the VS guns we see Stateside were imported by Stoeger back in the 50's and 60's. Solid guns, but even more basic than yours.
Choke work isn't terribly expensive. M/F is probably tighter than you need for most upland hunting purposes, so have it opened however you want. Plus, with more open chokes and your skeet/SC shooting experience, you can take your sxs to the club from time to time and wow the target gun guys with how well one of those outmoded guns can perform.
Nothing post-WWII is really old. If your gun is relatively light, you won't want to shoot a lot of fast, heavy loads through it, simply because you won't like the recoil. But a few of them, if you're hunting pheasants for example, won't be any problem. If you want to email me your photos, I can probably tell you more from the proofmarks on the barrel flats and water table: ljoelbrown@gmail.com. Always enjoy looking at nice old sxs.
