The fiancé and I are thinking about moving there.  I've visited 3 times and love the plethora of activities that can be had outdoors.  It seems to have it all outdoors.

Cost of living is considerably higher than Missouri, but it seems doable.  

How is the firearms culture out there?  I'm know Portland seems to be ultra liberal, but what about the rest of the state?  

Just curious what people have to say about the state.  I am in law enforcement, so that is likely the field I'll be continuing in once I am there.  

Every state has drawbacks.  The city I live in is run by democrats, and it's one of the two armpits of Missouri (the other being Saint Louis).  Crime is extremely high here.  There isn't a lot of camping/hiking/biking/ocean out here either, and we have cold cold winters and super hot and humid summers.  

I'm very pro 2A, and that is one (of several) reasons why a place like California is off of my list.  If I want outdoors and I'm willing to pay higher costs for housing etc. is Oregon a good place to move?  Is it quickly heading the way of California regarding illegals and gun rights?

The Willamette Valley(Basically Eugene to Portland) is a liberal cesspool with some decent areas in between. If I had to live in the Portland metro area it would be Clackamas County or Washington County. If you want to know more about the Portland mindset just watch Portlandia. It might have been intended to be a comedy but its more of a docu-drama.

Outside of Portland and Eugene just about everyone has guns here. Other than the valley Democrats passing an unenforceable law requiring background checks on private sales, I don't see much else changing. Outside of the Portland moonbats, most of the Democrats aren't terribly interested in restricting types of firearms beyond federal law. There are enough liberals here that own AR-15's and carry guns to make it less palatable, with of course the exception of Portland.

I live in Central Oregon in the heart of outdoor country. It's fantastic. Weather is great in the summer, warm and dry with highs in the 80's to low 90's most of the time. Winters are cold but not midwest cold. No rock salt either. If you can do it outside, you can do it in Oregon

There's a few sheriffs offices hiring. Are you looking at getting hired before moving or winging it?

I love this state. There are plenty of naysayers but I haven't had the bad experiences they have.

Definitely looking to get hired prior to any move.  I LOVE my job here, so there isn't necessarily a huge rush.

Look at central Oregon for outdoor activities. It's awesome over there. I'm stuck in the metro areas for .gov or I'd be there in a heartbeat.

I wouldn't go any further west than Idaho. As far as politics Washington and Oregon are lost causes. They are completely controlled by the left and many people here who claim they are moderates are left of center. The gun laws are getting bad and will only get worse. The "gun show loophole" was closed long ago but most gun folks seemed to shrug that off right away and didn't even seem to think it was much of an infringement. Now the "private party loophole" has been closed. It was passed with an emergency clause so that the people cannot overturn it by petition/initiative. Oregon and Washington both abuse the emergency clause with most party line legislation.

The people here are nice but they aren't outgoingly (my word) friendly like people in the Midwest. The weather and topography are awesome. Utilities are cheap but property taxes are pretty high.

I miss the snow but I don't miss scraping the windshield. I miss thunderstorms. I don't miss tornadoes and have only been through one earthquake that forced  the building I was in to be condemned.

If you do come out wait to buy a house after this fresh new real estate bubble bursts.

That part is no joke.  I just bought a house for 1/4 what the median Portland area house is actually selling at.  Out of state of course...
A shitty realtor screwed up my chance at Portland real estate when I could afford it and it was game over on that idea years ago.  

Based on what I was reading the other day,  you need at least $75k/year income to even be financed for a house here.  The median income is still under $50k.

The good:
Awesome outdoors opportunities.  Enjoy fishing and hunting?  Welcome to paradise.  You have tons of private land right off your doorstep.  There are wilderness areas  in Oregon bigger than some east coast states.  You drive 45 minutes outside of Portland and you are literally in a designated wilderness area.  I saw three people drive by when I was driving into the place I deer hunted last year and saw exactly zero people while I was stomping around the woods deer hunting.  Try that back east on public land.  Really nice mild weather (although this year was hot).  People are nice for the most part.  No sales tax is nice on things like vehicle purchases.  Some industries pay really well.  Medical, government, and engineering seem to bring in the big bucks.  You've got the Pacific ocean in driving distance.  Great places to eat.  Good local breweries and wineries...even if they do think a but much of themselves at times.  Public shooting is simply getting in your vehicle, getting out on a national forest road, and finding a safe place to shoot.  Gun laws are pretty good.  No more FTF's w/o going through an FFL and the state handles the background checks, so it can be a little slow at times.  It's not that bad though.
The bad:
Welcome to tax hell.  Property tax and state income tax are obscene.  The state alone takes a healthy 9.9% cut out of every paycheck for income tax.  The state government is running on armature hour.  It seriously is like a small town government is running the entire state.  The urban area seems very detached from the needs of the rural agricultural areas.  We recently lost an exporter that was 10% of Oregon's net tax revenue.  That was an enormous hit to Oregon's agricultural industry.  Lots of farmers lost an entire years crops that were sitting on that ports docks and now they have to ship most of their food up through WA cutting into their margins even more.  Government at the time was more worried about the governor's girlfriend.  The tax system is not favorable to big companies moving in, so there is little growth in that arena.  Housing prices are really high.  I'm not sure what MO's housing market is like, but I can compare it to Nebraska's.  A 150k house in NE is a 350-380k house here.  Small little town homes are 180-200k.  The bikers are militant, they will blow through stop signs, be riding up a hill on a blind corner, in the middle of the road, going five MPH on a 45 MPH road, on a foggy morning, and not give two fucks.  There is no such thing as city planning.  Traffic gets congested very easily for no apparent reason.

My wife and I are leaving after almost two years here.  We are from the Midwest and prefer that lifestyle a little more, but we feel blessed to have the opportunity to have lived out here for the time we have.  It's a great place to live.  Like everywhere it has it's pros and cons.  While Oregon is ultimately not for us, I'd come back here to vacation in a heart beat.  

Comments above are spot on. I've been in Oregon most of my life. It is changing. A few years ago, we went to annual legislative sessions. We used to have them every other year, so now the fully D legislature (nearly supermajorities) and the D governor can pretty much do whatever they want. And they are. Expect Oregon to become more and more like Califorina in the future. It is depressing. As a family, we have a plan to be in ID or MT in 3-5 years if all goes according to plan.

--My perspective is slanted. I live on the Red side of the state, and come from a conservative family.

Oregon IS a beautiful place. My hometown of Bend - we call it poverty with a view.

If you can make a living here, stomach the politics and prepare for the winds of change, you might even love it here.

But if you are a strong 2A guy, I predict disappointment in the coming years as the politicians pick off rights one at a time...incrementalism is happening.



Interesting note - we tried to recall 4 legislators who drove the most recent anti 2A push. We thought we had the signatures, but our VERY liberal appointed (not elected) Secretary of State just declared that we were short by a couple of hundred signatures. No one was surprised.

didn't you move to Detroit?  You bought a house in Detroit?  Is it one of those dollar houses I keep reading about?

It's south of Detroit,  but yes,  it is in Michigan. It is in a nice neighborhood and set me back $87k.

j/k about the dollar house.  Didn't think you moved as you still have OR listed as your location.  Hope all is well and good in MI.

I'm not moving 100% until spring. I'll be in Oregon until then.

Hey Cape, can we just have a tacked thread on the pro's/con's of moving here?  Seems like this pops up 2-3x a month

+1
My advice to the OP is simply read some threads on the front page. You'll get a pretty good idea what's going on here by just reading other threads. Housing is expensive, wages are low if you can find a job, ULTRA liberal government taking away gun rights.

Goddamn that sounds depressing.....and true.

I did read several of the threads.  Figured I would ask anyhow, and thank you to everyone that replied!

I don't like this gun legislation.  Missouri (where I live now) is pretty good with gun rights.  I love my job here.  But summers are stupid hot and humid, and winters are cold.  Not much amazing outdoors stuff to do either.  

I've visited Oregon 3x and I really enjoy it.  Lots to do outdoors.  It stinks that so many of the awesome states with tons of scenery, hiking, camping, etc are being infested with liberals.

Stay in that map and you'll be good. Pendleton is a good area, La Grande is very nice as well. For small towns, Arlington is close to the river if you like that, and Heppner/Lexington/Ione are all really close to some nice mountains for hunting.

All depends on what size of town you want to live in.

From my personal travels around the state I would say Baker is a gem of the east side of the state.

Only problem is the Portland metro area calls the shots on gun laws and the rest of the state inside your map has to suffer the consequences.

You went too far west by including hood river and mosier. Hood river is basically east Portland, it used to be pretty cool but has gotten ridiculous the past ten years.

Hunting and fishing licenses are stupid expensive. All rifle tags are drw tags only, some archery is draw, muzzle loader are all draw tags.

Having been here a month I really like the Salem area, if I had my druthers I would rather be farther out in the country.  Whatever you do , avoid Portland. Many people here were kind enough to give me that advice and its accurate.  No redeeming qualities did I see on my recent trip there. We went so the GF could goto Voodo Donuts and this is what we encountered .  

The line wrapped all the way around the block. No donut is worth a several hour wait IMO.  We went and explored the rest of town and found a place called the Pearl Bakery which was nice , and proclaimed themselves to be one of the top 10 bakeries in the nation.

Argh. I got a second round job interview with a public accounting firm in their Portland office.  Coming from California, I guess it's still somewhat of an upgrade, but eh.

I completely agree, that map should stop at The Dalles and then follow 97 down.