As for closing with revolvers, RIP Ford, who would know, put the revolver and the bow inside of 50 yards as being approximately equal. We are all familiar today with how hard handguns can be to hit with under stress at any sort of range, Colts back then being deployed at practically powder-burn ranges.
The Comanches' skill with their bows was well-described. I think, as I'm sure you do as well, that the claim that a Comanche warrior could shoot 10 arrows in less than 30 seconds from under the neck of his galloping horse and split a willow stick 10 out of 10 shots was an exaggeration.
As John Geirach says, when you ask the locals what the average fish out of Frenchmans' Creek is, they'll describe the best fish ever taken out of said creek by the best fisherman on the best day he ever had.
Yes, the Comanch' could shoot arrows from a galloping horse. But they wasn't all of 'em ever that good.
"As for closing with revolvers..." Elmer Keith,
who would know, put the revolver as a damned effective weapon for shooting running coyotes and rabbits from the back of a running horse if the revolver was "thrown" at the target, like casting a flyrod. He said he learned the "trick" from other working cowboys in Montana and Idaho at the turn of the last century, some of whom had used the "trick" to shoot their enemies while chasing them on horseback.
I can't say I've proven Elmer right in my own experience, primarily due to the lack of access to non-gunshy horses for me to work with, not to mention the time needed to acquire the skill. But Elmer says he did it regular, and folk who knew him have attested on all manner of occasions as how he could do it, so I tend to believe what he said was true.
So if we go back to the days of the early Rangers, and their Colt's Walker revolvers and the later Dragoon models, I expect that the work they did with those guns was as RIP Ford says, equal to what the Comanches could do with their bows.
As for your comment on "how familiar we are today with how hard handguns are to hit with under stress at any sort of range", I think you may be selling the skill of our better handgunners a few dollars short. I don't brag upon the good and fast shots I've made in competition or in the field very often, nor do any of the men who exceed me in handgun skills and personal integrity who post on these forums. But I think you may be selling short the skill of men who are truly motivated as well as blessed with the God-given skills to shoot well with their handguns, then as well as now.
