What kind of country do you hunt in , bush with mostly quick shots under a 100 yards or the big open stuff like up here.
ive always liked the 45-70 a great close gun lots of bullet weight to plow bush plus hits hard at close range i would assume its a lever action so a quick 2nd shot is always there. over a 100 yards and things get funny due to low ballistic speeds lost of hold over etc
Would you be getting a scope or using open sites ?

I live up where pope does and use a 300 magnum too cause your looking at deer and shooting at them at really long distances so speed and hitting power come into play.

I think a really good all around gun is a 306 pretty good at longer ranges and also hard hitting enought to knock most things down.

To be honest with you can make almost decent hunting gun work for you as long as you know your bullets and the guns limitations. Spend some time with your gun no matter what you get and figure out what you can do with it. you will be surprised at what it can actually do and how accuate you can get

My first gun was a 30/30 marlin which is a slow bullet for this area but i put a scope on it and was knocking deer down at a 150 yards. The 45 70 has a lot more hitting power than it cause of bullet size.