Fortunately, the gun store in my hometown is a Vortex distributer and he has some in stock that will be perfect on the 45-70. Bought one today, got it home and it wasn't long enough, rear bell wouldn't clear the rear bottom edge of the ring base. He had some other great choices, I just need to exchange for one that's at least 6" between the bells. A longer scope will look even better on this gun. I'm following the advice from the man from Florida and setting up at a lower power, but bigger picture. The only problem now is that Vortex doesn't make a silver scope that would be perfect for the .300 mag so I'll probabely have him order the Bushnell 4200 Iv'e been talking about or just order it myself online..........John