As we all are Muley. That's why the manufacturers make different MLs with different barrel lengths. You can get the 24" barrel in the Wolf up the a 42" barrel in a PA long rifle. (some longer). Its all a matter of taste.
As for the thicker timber portion - I think not. A lot of the areas I hunt in eastern PA, you can't see 20 yds. Between the scrub oaks, mountain laurel, greenbriar and blackberry bushes. Some of these places when you come out the other side it looks like you were in a fight with a wildcat. And look at the bush poor Semisane hunts. Those swamps in LA with the palmetto bushes, and all that other underbrush. Its no wonder the poor guy has to hunt food plots. Some of those places are even harder to get through than where I hunt.