Your hunting sounds like mine... all close shots. As for a scope I have a couple I have mounted on different rifles and am using and like;

2-7x32mm Nikon Pro Staff
3-9x40 Nikon Omega
4x32mm Simmons Pro Diamond
1.5x4.5x32mm Bushnell Banner Dusk to Dawn
2.5x20mm Simmons
1x32mm Traditions
1x20mm Nikon
1x32mm Thompson Center Hawkins
1.4-6.5x40mm Traditions illuminated
2-7x32mm Bushnell 3200 with firefly

All of them are 100 yards scopes and some even more. I know I can make a shot out to 100 yards with any of them. A real surprise was the simple Simmon 4x32mm Pro Diamond. A $39.99 scope and it just plain works. Excellent glass, clarity, etc. And for the money I paid for it.. if I damage it ... SO WHAT!!

My favorite is the Nikons and the Bushnell 3200 of course. They are just nice scopes. But the price of them and some of the others really make me wonder if I need that expensive dollar scope for where I hunt.

As for bullets.. my CVA Staghorn Magnum shoots about anything real good, but 90 grains of Pyrodex RS and a 245 grain Powerbelt and it will amaze you with what it groups. I never killed a deer with a powerbelt, but I would think that load would be more then lethal. I tried them when I was playing with powerbelts and found them to be deadly accurate. I Frontier Gander used that bullet on a mule deer a while back...