I would like to suggest that the primary distances where hold-offs are used for hunting is at the closer ranges - most of the deer we kill that are past 500 are usually not that spooked by our presence. Obviously the animal is more likely to be aware of you at closer range and he may take off, so you may not have time to crank elevation. Here is my simple view of hold-offs and your design (or the NP-R2 which I use a lot) given that the drops for the BHA .308 Win. 175 are:
100 - 0 moa
200 - 2 moa that is four inches, just hold a bit high with your crosshair intersection but still in the chest
300 - 4.8 (call it 5.0 moa) 15 inches, put the second tick on his backline
350 - 6.4 moa 22.4" third tick center of chest
400 - 8.0 moa (that is a nice number for your 2 moa ticks) 32.0" obviously put the fourth tick on his chest
450 - 9.8 (call it 10.0, another nice number) 45" fifth tick on his chest
500 - 11.7 (call it 12 - another number divisible by 2) 60" sixth tick on chest
In fact I would go to 25 yard increments after 350 and correlate the ticks and yardage. I would draw a simple diagram of your reticle and put the distances beside appropriate ticks, put that on a label and stick it to the side of my rifle. Would also do up a drop chart with the drawing and numbers to carry in my pocket.
Personally, I would not hold-off past 500 if I could avoid it. I would not want more than thirty moa if the turrets had lots of adjustment lattitude. Only reason most guys would use more than thirty might be on far-off rocks or practice targets. I believe that the small minority of 1000+ yard hunters would prefer to crank.
I compared "long range" (for me) shots on deer last year using holdoffs with the R2 and actual cranking and felt more confident and got "better" (as in closer to point of aim) hits when I clicked. Shot six deer each way, some 700 yard kills each method with my .300 WSM from GA. Plus the wind corrections pretty well have to be clicked for confidence.
We can tweek a hold-off with a click or two of elevation if needed, fourth bar and three clicks might be a point of aim/point of impact for a certain rig at 400 or whatever.
Also I believe that the ten minute wind bars at the bottom serve little actual purpose. I would not want to hold-off thirty eight moa for a 1000 yard shot and try to also hold-off ten or twelve moa of wind. We need ticks or reference points out were the hold-off might be. The Horus might be a busy reticle but it gives us an enormous choice of hold-offs for elevation and wind.
I would keep the one moa ticks all the way to the intersection. Realistically they do not "clutter" the view, that is garbage as far as big game hunting goes. As for smaller critters, I would use the ticks and not complain about their presence.
Good luck with your reticle.
