This is one of those situations where bullet constrruction is literally crucial. As you know, you must push JHPs to a certain level to make 'em expand, and that certain level varies with the type of bullet. Some will expand fairly well in animal tissue at as little as, say, 900 fps. Others, especially if fabricated to hold together at .357 mag velocities, don't want to pop until well beyond 1000.
Hornady's XTP bullets are packaged with a slip which indicates the preferred range of velocities for that particular item. Speer's 125 Gold Dot has a good reputation, but I have not handloaded any of these.
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I was going to load them up for my 3" snubbie for defense, if I can determine if they will be reliable stoppers.
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Your 10-5 is safe for use at +P levels, so about all you can do, especially with that short a barrel, is to stoke these bullets up to max and hope for the best. The Speer loading data shows all their 125 bullets as max at 6.0 gr. Unique or 5.9 of H. Universal. These show 1050 to 1080
in a six-inch barrel.
Rodger, I suggest that for pure defense, if you need to handload, you might be happier with a 158 gr LSWC, either solid or HP. The velocities will be lower, but the sectional density is very good. Also, for social purposes, the good ol' 158 LSWCHP+P, either R-P or Win factory loads, has an outstanding reputation. And Speer's new 135 gr JHP+P was formulated especially for short barrel revolvers. If you choose the latter, you can handload your 125 JHPs to approximately the same velocity for practice. I dunno if Speer offers their 135 JHP bullets as a separate component.
Best of luck - -
Johnny