I didn't want to sound like I'm just crapping all over mule deer, they're a neat animal. I hunt an eastern MT area that's pretty similar to your picture, except that it have nearly as many whitetails as muleys. So, I'm hunting the two species side by side in two areas. One is the wide open eastern MT plains and the other is in heavy timber around my home in western MT. Nearly every day out I see both species, and whitetails really deserve their superior reputation for smarts. Last year I passed up the titan muley (a symmetrical 24" wide dude) of the area twice, and he wasn't too bright.