To be honest, I have used quite a few different bullets out of my little .308 over the past 12-14 years. In the area I do quite a bit of hunting the below picture shows a portion of the bottom that is fairly open. Most of it is quite a bit thicker, so I understand your reasoning.
(BTW- I took this picture standing over a 200# hog back towards the road through the woods from which I shot from. There are two large 4 wheelers and a small trailer only 75yds back through the woods to give you an idea of the hole I shot through to get the hog we're picking up.)
For the most part I have simply used the standard green boxed Remington CL's in 150gr. It has been plenty accurate grouping around 1.5"@100yds, to do all I have needed it to do. There have only been two deer shot with this particular rifle, but both hit the ground where they stood at ranges less than 75yds. This said, I can't even count the number of hogs of all sizes I have put down with it, even out past 400yds. Most were DRT shots, but there have been a few which soaked up the first shot and required another. I cannot blame the loads for that however. When your in the brush and have 30 or more targets running willy nilly through there, you pick a hole and when black fills the scope you shoot.
Even if your handloading, I would suggest at least giving the Remington factory stuff a try. I picked up several hundred of the bulk 150gr CL's specifically for low cost hog loads several years back. I found it was pretty easy to duplicate the factory load using H-4895. The best thing was, the felt recoil actually seemed less than with the factory load, but the groups and velocity were right on par with them. When the rifle only weighs 6.5# fully loaded and ready to hunt, that little bit of difference is noticeable.
As mentioned a good battery powered saws all, or some limb loppers would be your best bet towards getting a clear shot. You don't need to open up a 10' wide lane, but several which are only a clear 2-3' will go a LONG ways. Then your wife can simply get ahead of her deer as it moves through the thicker stuff and make the shots in the lanes. It also won't give her position away as much either.