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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.
Indeed, longbowmen can be identified as their skeletons are significantly deformed over years of training.
Beyond just being able to draw a bow, being able to draw it well enough to have a chance of shooting at all repeatably takes a lot of training - it's not just lifting a 50+lb weight, pulling it towards you with one and and pushing it away with the other while keeping your arms stable requires a lot of strength in muscles the people don't tend to use.
Source: former colleague is an international competition level archer - the sheer amount of core strength and coordination and balance you need to be a good archer is wild
Bows are not "incredibly hard to use". There's a reason 8 year old cub scouts get to shoot them and manage to hit a target. Weaker draw bows, obviously.
However, for an adult man a 40 pound draw on a compound bow is pretty easy. That's also the bottom end of draw strength for hunting. In fact, most teens could pull it back. Typical is about a 60 pound draw.
Now aiming takes a bit of practice with a bow or a gun or a rifle. Also, if you're using a compound bow or a traditional bow.
All of them are not too difficult to learn, but accuracy wise you can learn to be accurate with guns and rifles faster than with bows. Bullets have a much flatter trajectory than slower moving arrows, so if you aim at something you think is 30 yards away, but it's really just ten yards further out with a bow, you'll miss. A bullet has almost no change in trajectory over such a small change of distance. Rifles also seem more intuitive to aim.
As a former 8 year old Cub Scout, bows are incredibly hard to use. I was an excellent marksman with a rifle.
I never had much trouble with it. No harder than a slingshot.
They don't always need to do a full draw for every shot though, especially at shorter ranges. E. G. In this video by Lars Anderson he does some very quick short range shots and doesn't look like he does a full draw for them: https://youtu.be/BEG-ly9tQGk
That said, firing a gun still seems like it would take way less skill and training, except maybe something with a lot of kick like an AWP and deagle? 😅
Low draw means low power and penetration. For speed shooting or distracting/stunning a target, that would be helpful, but you're not gonna kill someone unless it's a very lucky shot. There's a reason war bows were such high draw weight, and it wasn't for piercing plate. More power means more energy retained over distance and more energy delivered to the target. If you're needing to speed shoot in close quarters in a self defense scenario, you're probably better off using the bow as a club or stabbing them with an arrow directly. Archers usually carried other weapons for that reason.
Looool. Lars Anderson is such a meme joke with my archery friends cause he’s clearly drawing incredibly light draws at super close range. It’s like the equivalent of being showy with a rubber band slingshot. I’m sure a darts player can hit the same targets.
Full disclaimer, I haven’t shot a real gun, just an air pistol and it did feel more intuitive and a little easier to get more accurate shots in comparison to all the tiny, preflight checks I need when I’ve drawn a compound bow.
There’s also the point of needing to draw actual weight (40lbs+ is ideal for hitting targets 60-70 yards away) for effective shots that would make archery more tedious to get into if someone’s not very physically active.
I’m sure both hobbies have their tedium, it’s just a matter of what one finds more interesting to master.