Bows are actually incredibly hard to use. When you see a “draw weight” of the bow, this is the force you need to exert to pull it back to its full draw. 40-50lbs is considered normal, I believe, while the English Longbow - famous for its use in the Hundred Years’ War - had a draw weigh of at least 80 pounds, with some scholars suggesting even 50% greater numbers than that. Imagine lifting a weight that heavy each time you wanted to loose an arrow!

Bows, then, require extended training to use properly. Not just strength training, although professional archers were jacked, but in how to properly employ the weapon. The dominance of early firearms had much to do with not just their absolute performance - at times, they were actually outperformed by bows in absolute terms - but by that their effective use could be broken down into simple actions which could be easily drilled into new recruits.

If we’re talking about modern guns, this effect is much exaggerated. Guns can take some getting use to, sure, and modern bows have added features for ease of use. But guns are, honestly, shockingly easy to use for what they can accomplish.

Bows take years to learn and a lifetime to master. Crossbows were a military revolution simply because they were easy to learn. In that sense, crossbows and firearms are very similar, but depending on your range you’ve got more dropoff in accuracy with xbows due to gravity.

The act of using a prepped weapon? The gun for sure.

The complexity of the mechanical nature and upkeep? Bow far simpler.

If you were to just hand a prepped weapon to someone and tell them to shoot a target the gun user would be far more likely to succeed first.

If you expected someone to figure out how to prep a weapon (stringing the bow vs loading a mag) I think people would intuitively understand how to prepare the bow for use, but the specific motions and buttons for guns might stump some people.

Now I really want to find a bunch of people who have somehow never seen or heard of either and see which one they intuitively understand easier.

Absolutely a gun. The thing they don’t tell you about bows is that you have to be the one to draw back the bowstring, and you need to exert enough force on that bowstring that your stored potential energy sends an arrow flying. If you’re physically weak, good fucking luck. Yeah, maybe if you’re strong enough or use a compound bow to reduce the amount of strain aiming is easy, but in my experience, it’s pretty rough getting to a point where you can conveniently draw, aim, and fire a bow.

Meanwhile, a .22 rifle barely has enough kick for a child to feel. A shotgun or any higher calibre rifle might give a teenager a bit of a sore shoulder. Movies exaggerate it a little bit, but it really isn’t that much harder than “point and click.” The answer is gun by a mile.

Source: I had a lot of ranged weapons training in the Scouts. If I had to choose one, I’d go with hatchets.

Of all the weapons in the vast Soviet arsenal nothing was more profitable than Avtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947, more commonly known as the AK-47, or Kalashnikov.

It’s the world’s most popular assault rifle, a weapon all fighters love. An elegantly simple nine pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood, it doesn’t break, jam, or overheat. It will shoot whether it’s covered in mud or filled with sand.

It’s so easy even a child can use it, and they do.

The Soviets put the gun on a coin, Mozambique put it on their flag. Since the end of the Cold War, the Kalashnikov has become the Russian people’s greatest export. After that comes vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists. One thing is for sure; no one was lining up to buy their cars.

~ Lord of War

Define easier

In terms of making the danger dot go, guns are miles easier to initially fire. But easy only in that sense, that pulling a trigger takes less force to achieve.

Bows are definitely harder to pull.

However, even a simple firearm isn’t as intuitive as a bow to make ready to shoot.

A gun, even the simplest ones, take more steps to go from paperweight to boom stick. A bow, you can just look at and tell there’s essentially three steps: put pointy part away from you, other end on string; pull string; let go.

A gun, you have to determine what size bullet and how much propellant, load a bullet and propellant, close the gun or otherwise ensure that the bullet comes out the danger end; then engage the trigger. And even that assumes the bullet and powder don’t need anything like a percussion cap, a flint or whatever.

If it’s a more advanced firearm, you’ll be dealing with some kind of safety mechanism, loading a magazine or revolver with the correct rounds, and how to open whatever mechanism allows you to load the rounds.

So, guns take more non intuitive thinking to make work, and are thus harder.

I’d say they’re roughly equally hard to shoot well, but that guns are slightly easier to shoot and hit something. Both take a lot of practice to keep tight groupings of the animation ammunition in the target. But you can kinda trust the speed of a bullet to hit what you’re generally pointing at, at close range. An arrow, it tales a little more effort to figure out how to do that. It isn’t a huge gap, but it is there.

It’s different learning curves, basically.

Type of device does matter some; an old school long bow is going to be a little easier for a total noob to put arrows into a target with than a fancy modern bow. And you definitely have a different set of body mechanics between long guns and handguns, as well as between rifles and shotguns. There’s nuances between revolvers and “semi auto” in handguns, bolt action vs semiautomatic in rifles and shotguns, etc.

But, on average, if I was wanting to get someone to the point they could have a decent chance of hunting something the size of a deer, I’m going to put a rifle in their hands. They’ll, with instruction, be able to get clean kills faster than with a bow. Even with iron sights, I’ve seen kids keep sub six inch groups after a few days of practice with appropriately sized rifles, at hunting ranges. An adult should be able to be ready to roll at least that fast

I shoot as a hobby and I’ve dabbled with archery

Bows take strength to use and are also harder to be consistent with. The way you nock the arrow on the string, keeping constant pull while aiming and inconsistencies in the arrows all play a part. Rifles aren’t nearly as bad as long as you have good fundementals.

Ballistics are a big deal with ranged weapons. Arrows don’t go very far or very fast so you really need to know how the arrow will arc and account for that as you aim. The farther the shot the more wind, drop etc will have to be factored into your aim. Elevation matters too if you’re on a hill or in a tree stand or something.

I’m going to make up a number but let’s say 50 yards would be a tough shot for a bow to hit something consistently. For a rifle that is no problem and most rifle bullets’ paths won’t start to arc or get blown by wind significantly until it has travelled several hundred yards.

I find that long range shooting with a bolt action “feels” roughly the same as shooting archery. You really need to focus and make sure you’re doing everything right for good results. But that also makes it that much more satisfying when you do well!

There’s a reason guns were called the great equalizer.

Aiming a bow is pretty easy, and it doesn’t require that much strength

(Obviously I’m not talking about a medieval British longbow)

Gun is far easier to hit your target with. Crossbow is compareable with much lower range but a bow, wether it be long, recurve or compound is quite hard.

Modern guns a extremely precisely engineered devices that are incredibly easy to use, for better or worse. I know modern sporting bows are also but it’s no contest in my opinion.

I’ve shot both, bows as a complete amateur and relatively competent with a rifle. There is no question that a modern gun is way easier to pick up as an amateur and hit what you want to hit and I cannot possibly believe there are anything other than extremely niche uses where a bow is superior.

I’ve shot both and guns are much easier to both shoot and aim. A single action revolver is a lot easier to shoot than most people think. It takes barely any pressure on the trigger, so aiming is a lot more accurate. The bigger the gun, the easier it is to aim (and the more accurate it will be, especially if the barrel is rifled). Also rapid fire is much easier than a bow. There’s a reason there are no mass murderers using bows.

That being said, bows are way easier to make. You can make a decent enough bow and arrows with a dead chicken, a sharp rock, and a few nice sticks. Making a gun requires some pretty complex knowledge of both metalwork and chemistry. You also need a source of immense heat, so building at least a small forge is required.

I have little experience but have fired each and your instincts are right. gun much easier. now because my experience is low maybe large kickback firearms are worse than bows but I went regularly to an archery range but only for like some months and I can say I never got that good with hitting close to a bullseye but with a rifle it was not hard to get better than that the first session. Your example though is video games so im not sure if run and gun might be different. I mean when you are not moving and aiming the sites work pretty well (presumably if calibrated right but I have never done that and assumed whoever did it did a good job) but like if your running around shooting things then I dunno maybe the bow could be better but I doubt it.

guns are much easier to aim and use. technically a bow is quieter, but guns can be made to be fairly quiet and are generally much less bulky than bows. generally speaking, guns are point and click. bows are dependent on how you hold the bow, how you hold the arrow, and the form with which you release the arrow (letting the bow move the right way and amount is involved). on top of that even the quietest configuration of a gun will have more power per size than a bow because gunpowder is very energy dense and the barrel of a gun is a great way of focusing that energy into a projectile.

I bet it would take me 15 minutes to teach you to put 80% of shots on a dinner plate target at 100m with my 50 year old hunting rifle I got for free of an old man who moved to the city.

Classical bows require strength to use. They have no sights either so you have to go by feel. Modern compound bows are easier to shoot but the arrow still drops much more than a bullet, so shooting at longer ranges is harder.

Smaller caliber guns can be suppressed to be fairly quiet. A bow will be quieter but not by an order of magnitude.

The advantage of a bow is that it’s easier to find somewhere to practice because even the most reckless shot the arrow does not travel as far before it drops to the ground. You can also reuse your arrows.