I agree with you in regards to not reducing the loads below what's in the books. However, Hornady has the starting load for the VV N110 with the 180 XTP at 10.5 grains going up to 11.8.
Even at 10.9 it was around 200 FPS slower than Hornady's data. I am going to try 11.1, 11.3, and 11.4 to see if it comes alive. We are also going to run those loads thru his nearly identical S&W revolver. If the N110 does not get closer to 1000 FPS with the 11.3 grains we'll switch to Alliant 2400.
I'm learning a lot here and I thank you all for the help.
Once these 180 gr XTP bullets are gone I'll be switching to another bullet and powder that'll hopefully give me less problems.