Judging from the peroid's publications, American guns, rifles, shotguns and pistols alike, were very highly thought of in Russia, both before and after 1917. If my memory doesn't fail me, Andrievsky (a good writer and a person who organised Royal hunts, sorry, don't remember his exact title at the Court if any) mentioned owning and liking "a long-range American shotgun", (but failed to mention what kind). I can dig up in the magazines and check, if anyone's interested.
As for shotguns, specifically, a number of top Russian gun experts, claimed in print that America had the best shotgun manufacturing in the world, offering the best design, strength and quality for reasonable money.
But! The above high estimation was reserved for the machine-made, mass-market guns, "the guns for the people" in the Soviet lingo. The same experts in the same works never failed to note that in the realm of high-class, hand-made weapons the American producers lacked "the taste and overall refinement" of the top Brittish and Continental makers (Don't shoot me, I'm just quoting! :)) An American gun was seen as the best workhorse gun, not The Best Gun.
I doubt that the top offerings of American companies would have impressed a pre-Revolution Russian aristocrat. The fact that there were little difference in quality, apart from the wood and engraving, between the high and low grades is it. The persons brought up in the aristocratic environment would expect a Best Gun to differ from the commoner's gun not only in cosmetics, but in essential issues like design, fit, patterns, etc. - in overall refinement. From this perspective, a highly engraved, nicely stocked mass-produced gun would be similar to a peasant dressed up to look like a prince. As anyone who believes in aristocracy would testify, royalty is not in the clothes!
