What type of hunting are you wanting to do with it? Stand hunting? Still hunting? Pushes? What sort of distances are you anticipating for shot opportunities?
Vortex makes great scopes for the money and has an awesome guarantee on their scopes, no questions asked. Leupold scopes are very nice also. Both companies offer LEO/MIL discounts if that is something to help you save a few bucks.
I am going with a 1.25-4x on my 44mag, 444 marlin and my muzzleloader from Leupold. 4 power is good enough for the 150-200 yard shots which would be my maximum distance to shoot the 444 marlin and just about the farthest I could safely shoot on the farm. The 1.25x is almost as fast as a red dot for still hunting or when walking during our slow pushes. Other really useful zooms for deer hunting in Ohio would be 1-6, 2-7. I can never find a deer fast enough with a 3-9 but that is probably practice rather than an actual problem. I would also look at some of the "shotgun slug" reticles as the ballistics will be similar to 45-70 but not perfect.
I have 3 Vortex scopes on other rifles and love them on those rifles.