Yeah it does suck and think a warning would've been the better route. GW sounds like he either had a Poacher in the area(and thought your buds were it) or a power trip. You must have a law that say no loaded guns after legal. Here we have the same law, if you wound a deer, you can track it with your firearm after dark....but unloaded. The GW's have no way to know if you shot it legally though, so Blood Trail is moot. Not to defend his actions here, but poachers (which he thought your buds were) are known to lie. As far as legal action, "if" you have a law stating it is unlawful to possess a firearm after legal even while tracking wounded game (most place do for safety reasons), than really nothing you can do, sorry. Obviously the lawyer they consulted feels the same way. I wish I could give you a better answer, but law is law. It usually is up to the GW if they enforce it and what degree. In this case he took it all the way, which really sucks.

Maybe the old saying "one to grow on". Next time either track without the weapon or come back the next morning to make it legit.