Hey there, just looking on this thread now....
I get the impression that "some" writters here have a rather lofty expectation of the 7.62.
I thought I'd paint a picture for you on the 'visuals of it's ballistic table'. Now bear with me thou, it has been a few years.
Summer of 1985 I was on the national shootong team to Bisley England, granted, we where using match grade bolt rifles... but what I wish to do here is give you an idea, after the round leaves the barrel.
At 1000 yrds, the target frame is 6' x 6' square, thus centre of bull is 3' from top of frame.
The highest point of the trajectory is 12' above the top of the frame of the target.... that puts the rd. at hightest point of trajectory approx. 15' above point of aim.
The rd stricking the target is coming in on a sharp angle, IIRCC, greater than 45 degrees. While spotting through scope you could see impact of the rd 'under'/below the target when it was a bull.
Now that is an explaination for being shot in a vaccum....
Let's ponder, because I am NOT going to attempt to explain... the wind effect. Let's just say.. in a match there are wind flags every 100 yrds. Now how to read them is one thing, ... how to inturrpret what they mean when the first two (closest) are barely moving to the right, the next three are barely moving straight at you, then two more are raised straight out to the left, and lifting sporatically........ Now take that and try to maintain a MOA at 1000 yrds.....
Real world is a little different than theory.....