I'm going to be starting load workup for my FCP-SR (20") with IMR 4064. I have a question that I don't know whether there's really an answer for but I'll try anyway. BTW, this is my first 308 load workup and my shooting is 100-300 yards.

My workup procedure is to first buy a box of commercial ammo loaded with each of the bullets that I'm considering using and to shoot a representative sample of all of them. After determining which bullet shoots "best" I determine the best charge using an ogive to base OAL in the middle of my range, in this case .030". After determining the charge I then vary the OAL by .010, in this case .010-.050, and load ten charges at each OAL to determine my final charge & OAL.

This procedure has always worked well for me in the past but I've never dealt with as many different bullet types and weights..which in this case are going to be SMK 168gr and 178gr, A-Max 155, 168 and 178gr and Hornady BTHP Match 155, 168 and 178gr.
Thats eight different bullets and if I fired two five shot groups of each to test, it makes 80 total test rounds. The issue that I have is that I live an hour from the range and because of a health issue I can't leave my wife for more than 4-5 hours max at a time. I get to the range about once every two weeks so I don't want the process to take three months. So that begs the question as to whether out of these eight bullet/weight combinations can anybody make a suggestion as to which ones might be less likely to be "successful" in this rifle and which I could probably eliminate from my tests? I'm aware that each rifle is different and what works well in one might not necessarily work well in another but I would think there might be some generalizations that can be made to streamline the process somewhat. From what I've read this rifle doesn't seem to like the 155s very much so maybe that's a start?

Any advice or personal experience that you can offer would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

--Terry