LogFAQs > #980132649

In 3E, the only edition I care about...

It depends.

If all you care about is sheer damage and highest rate of fire, it's Fighter. Ranged Weapon Mastery, Weapon Supremacy, and Targetteer to get an extra Rapid Shot is just a monstrous volley. (arguably a Ranger could match/exceed it later on w/ Stalker of Kharash to get favored enemy against ALL evil foes and the Arrow Storm spell to shoot every enemy within 100 ft in a round, but that's pretty niche)

I'd say Ranger is the much better complete package, though. Much more skills and Spot in class so you can actually see targets 1000 ft away. And the spells help a ton. Arrow Mind alone lets you go all Legolas and shoot w/ impunity even while surrounded, Arrow Storm is an army slayer, Hunter's Mercy to auto-crit when you just need to snipe someone, Hunter's Eye to get sneak attack damage... all kinds of spells to help with stealth or scouting, etc....

Of course, why limit yourself to one or the other? Ranger 16 / Fighter 4 (1st level or so in ranger, then 4 level fighter dip, then back to ranger) gets you literally everything I mentioned in the Fighter paragraph (except Weapon Supremacy...but you'll probably never even play till level 18+ anyway) for the low cost of delaying Ranger stuff by 4 levels.