I grew up in the Salem area Woodtick. I moved to Bend which is about 2.5 hours east 16 years ago. The hunting around there isn't good, logging on national forest east of Salem stopped in the early 90's, hunting has gone down hill big time since. West of Salem is the Coast range, there is good Roosevelt elk hunting and good Blacktail hunting if you know what your doing and spend a lot of time in the woods. One of the big challenges you will face is most of that land is owned by private timber companies and they keep it locked to vehicle traffic. Nearly all hunting on the coast range is OTC and it is very popular. The best elk hunting is in the NE corner of the state, it will take anywhere from 3 to 20 years or more to draw a rifle tag in those areas starting with zero points. There are some units that are OTC for archery in NE but the good ones are draw only, some are taking 15 points now to draw. Mule deer hunting just plain sucks for the most part, there are some great bucks here and there but they are few and far between. The best deer hunts are taking 15-16 points now to draw and a 160 buck is a dandy anything bigger is not very common.
Just to give you an idea, I have lived in Oregon my entire life. In the last 10 years I've killed 3 deer, and 2 bulls and I hunt harder than most people I know.
Hopefully the job offer is good enough that you can afford to hunt out of state!
