ORIGINAL: HEAD0001
The Leupold scope is a good choice. I have used the Burris and Leupold's on MZ's. It sounds like you know your yardage. If I were you I would get either a Burris or Leupold with either the Boone and Crocket or the Burris B-Plex reticle. I do not like the BDC reticle. I do not understand why they would put circles in a scope. I am not knocking it without trying it. I have a 4X12 Monarch with the BDC on a 22 Magnum. I find it difficult to use. I also have The B&C reticle's on Leupold's and I really like them. Their distances on the scopes have worked out well for my large conicals. And since you know the distance's you should not have any problem's. Any MZ past 100 yards is a rainbow trajectory to start with-so go with a heavy conical and learn your trajectory. I would have no discomfort shooting to 250 yards or slightly beyond with a 525 grain bullet at 1600 fps. The B&C reticle will allow you to do that. Just practice.
Remember there are shooter's who do this with open sights. I have even witnessed shooter's with open sights shooting to 1,000 yards. Now that is impressive.
A large bullet will kill effectively at long distance as long as you do your part. There were alot of buffalo killed with a 45-70 past 200 yards. And IMO it is not difficult to duplicate 45-70 ballistics from a MZ. Just practice. Tom.
I disagree on the rainbow for a ballistic tip bullet like the SW, Parker Balistic Extreme, Harvester Scorpion PT, Barnes TMZ, most will shoot pretty flat to 200 yards, see the post above by AndrewJoseph. He is shooting 2" high at 100 yards with a SW and it is 2" low at 200, that is NOT a rainbow, that is a pretty flat shooting ML rifle. I agree you can take game to 200 yards with a big conical, but the bullet drop is a lot more if your say 3" high at 100 yards. For a chart on bullet drop from 100 to 200 for a lot of popular bullets see this:
http://www.hpmuzzleloading.com/Technical.html
Chap Gleason