All, this thread seems to be a little bit old but I wanted to follow up on this topic. I am aware that you are allowed to carry a sidearm for protection, and protection only. I'm going out to Colorado for archery elk / deer. If this question was already answered in the five pages that have been on this thread, I'm sorry that I perused past the answer, but I'm interested on what happens if you actually do shoot a bear or another predator for protection, and how the back and forth goes with a game warden and having to prove that it was in self-defense. I assume that if you call the game warden, say, 'hey I had to shoot a bear out of self-defense, it was charging toward me and wouldn't stop and I wasn't going to wait until mauled before shooting... here is the location of where the carcass lies' hopefully the game warden comes out and inspects it, and good for you for doing the right thing by notifying them, and that is what it is and nothing more. But I'm curious, is there some sort of drawn out investigation process? On the other side of the coin, I would assume that there has also been instances where somebody that legitimately doesn't care about the rules and wants to harvest a bear and keep its fur, would call the warden, and give the same blurb I mentioned above and lie about shooting one in self-defense, to give the guise that they are trying to do the right thing....and then says, 'well I would hate to have this animal go to waste, do you mind if I salvage the meat and take it to a taxidermist?' Any wardens in this thread?
