Not a fan of shoot through scope rings-- They force your head up off the stock into a position that isn't easily repeatable for good practice.
I would recommend going with a scope that has a low end magnification that won't keep you from making those close shots. I hunted relatively thick big timber areas of Kentucky and I used a Leupold VX1 3-9x40- extremely light and I have had 3 of them- 2 on muzzleloaders an 1 on a slug gun- zero issues with the recoil. Recoil is going to be your biggest issue on a muzzleloader so get a quality scope made for the abuse.
If you think that the 3x might be a bit much then I would look at their 2-7x offerings made for slug guns or even the 1.5-5x- just remember in the big woods as you shrink your objective lens it makes it harder to gather good light.