How to Have a Roadkill Christmas in Montana

I don't care what some economists are saying right now... groceries are stupidly expensive. Yeah, egg prices have stabilized, but beef at the store is through the roof, thanks to a supply shortage caused by drought and market conditions. Chicken hasn't been a cheap protein for several years, and deals on pork seem few and far between.

Shrinkflation continues to work its sneaky magic, too. Last week, I bought a regular-sized can of Pringles for the first time in a while. That big tube of salty, carby goodness was barely above half full.

Read More: 10 Montana Habits That Outsiders Think Are Weird

Stretch your food budget with free roadkill meat.

If you're new here, this might be a shocker; in Montana, you can legally harvest dead animals from the side of the road to eat. The roadkill law was passed in 2013, and it's basically what it sounds like. On average, more than 1,200 people have been legally picking up roadkill annually in Montana for over a decade now.

Upset that you hit a deer with your vehicle? Take it home and eat it!

Montana has one of the highest rates of accidents caused by hitting wildlife in the nation. They say it's not a matter of "if" but "when" you'll eventually hit a deer in the Treasure State. I was two decades into having a driver's license before it finally happened to me.

If Montana's roadkill legality was a thing at the time, I probably wouldn't have tossed that dead doe in my trunk to take home and process, simply because I don't love deer meat that much.

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But the conditions that day were ideal. It was winter, the temperature was cold, the deer was very much freshly killed, because I just hit it with my car bumper at 60 miles per hour. It could have been a great opportunity to make several pounds of deer jerky.

Rules and recommendations for collecting roadkill in Montana.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks provides rules and guidelines for safely and legally collecting a carcass from the side of the road.

• You can only pick up roadkilled deer, antelope, elk, and moose. No raccoons, possums, beavers, turkeys, waterfowl, domestic animals, porcupines, or skunks.
• You must acquire a salvage permit from FW&P within 24 hours. Get one HERE.
• Salvage permits are free.
• You do not need a hunting license.
• You don't have to be the person to hit the animal. If the person in front of you smokes an elk and keeps on truckin', the carcass is all yours.
• The animal must be DOA. If you hit a deer and it's still alive in the ditch, the rules say you must wait for law enforcement to end its misery.
• Obey all highway rules when collecting the carcass.
• You gotta take it all. No gut piles or pulling the backstrap and leaving the rest on the shoulder.

Other regulations apply, like not selling or donating the meat, meat must be for human consumption (not bait or pet food), you can keep the antlers, hide, etc., and a handful of others. Read the regulations HERE. 

Eat Montana roadkill at your own risk.

My favorite part of the Montana roadkill regs is where officials say,

Montana FWP makes no guarantee as to the fitness for consumption of wild animal meat collected under a salvage permit. Persons salvaging and consuming this meat do so at their own risk.

This. Roadkill might be off-putting to some, but fresh (FREE!) wild game is free meat. Use your own judgement, follow food safety protocols, and you'll probably be just fine.