You can bowhunt bears as kent said from 10/14 to till new years eve as bow can be substituted for a gun but there is one week or so thats closed to bow around deer gun season...I live in Fayetteville in Fayette County on the New river gorge we got lots of them and bears are plentiful in all parts of the state but the southern counties from Nicholas south seem to have the best bowhunting... not to be a negative guy but I have lived here and hunted most of my 47 years for deer and bear and have only killed one "Good bear" a 350 pounder with a bow and it was mostly luck it was feeding on acorns where I was deer hunting..since baiting is not allowed not even use of scent and cant use outfitter it is tough to LEGALLY take a bear,,most are killed when they visit a deer feeder...they are plentiful but very hard to pattern I have 5 or 6 different bears that get in my bird feeders and livestock feed here at house but over the years I have kept track of when I see them or when they tear up something and its a pattern of about every three weeks I see them at mid day or morning but mostly they are active at night heck one crapped on my back porch steps last week lol... If you have tons of time to scout and a good reliable food source like apple trees, acorns and soft mast you can find bears. Now is the time to scout look for broken down saplings, Blackberry and Poke berry bushes rode down and territory rubs (males mark their areas) find a bear now and keep tabs on him till October then find the local mast trees or soft mast and HOPE he comes by on his 30 square mile wandering lol, some bears are home bodies though so scout hard and often spend lots of time in your hunt area and you can make your own luck...I am by no means an expert but have lived in good bear country all my life and learned they are tough critters to find but are fairly predictable but their time frame aint like ours,, enough rambling on my part lol!! as for dangerous??? well you got a better chance of getting hit by lightning as hurt by a black bear they are very secretive spookie animals unless you mess with there cubs..as for size we got some of the largest bears in north america if your ever on Route 79 near Flatwoods stop in at the big motel on the hill by the 4 lane and look at the full body mount of a bear that was once a world record I think it was over 600lbs closer to 700 but dont quote me on that but it looks like a small car in the lobby lol good luck GC