Working in retail is not a high paying job. LGS used to have gun enthusiasts working in them who might or might not be as knowledgable as they thought they were, but very few had expert knowledge in all areas of the shooting sports. So, if you were wanting to get into trap shooting, it would be very unlikely that everyone behind the counter would be a trap shooting expert. The same would be true for self defense experts, or big game hunters.
Big box stores are often worse. Some like Scheels do have staff that are somewhat gun knowledgeable but most are far from experts.
Part of the problem is you waltz into the store with more money to spend than they make in a week or even a month to ask questions about guns they can't afford and have little or no experience with. It is one thing to ask about a Ruger 10/22, but quite another matter to ask about a Volquartsen Superlite which the store has never stocked and the clerk has never seen or fired. They are both .22LR semi automatics, but the price difference pretty much guarantees the clerk is not going to explain the other differences. Chances are, the store has never stocked the one but has had plenty of others go through the store. Which one is the clerk likely to recommend?
Then there is the distributor issue. A gun store may have favored status with a particular distributor and will favor the guns that distributor sells because of credit terms or shipping terms or even volume discounts. Some very good guns are not even available through distributors which creates extra hassle for the gun store.
Finally, there is, as others have correctly noted, the issue of opinions. Trap shooters are mostly social people and talk quite a bit about guns for trapshooting. What you would find is that even the best shooters might not agree on brands. While most shoot over and unders , a good percentage of shooters shoot single barrels or unsingles, and a few shoot semi autos or pump guns. Sometimes that is economics but there can be other reasons as well. Part of the time, there is an area dealer that stocks one brand of trap guns and pushes them hard in his local area.
The same is true for handguns for self defense. I like Springfield Armory in part because the owners and I grew up in the same area, but after trying their long guns I liked their product. Initially, I wasn't big on their 1911s but when their XDs showed up I was a believer. Recently their Hellcat came out and now I'm really sold. I'm now very willing to try their 1911s but likely won't buy one as I have two custom ones already from a nationally recognized custom gunsmith.
Keep doing your homework and shoot everyone else's guns to find what works for you. Take all opinions with a grain of salt. Also remember that really experienced shooters can normally make almost any gun work pretty well for them. Then remember that what you really want to know is how reliable the gun is with the ammo you want to use and how well it "fits" you. Most guns are far more accurate than the shooter so unless you are shooting precision that should not even be a consideration other than matching the brand and type of ammo to the gun itself.
