I wanted to post my agreement with a this:
harmon rabb: "The sp101 handles recoil like a large frame revolver. Somehow. "
I find the same to be true in my hands. To be specific, I bought a .357 SP101 snubby in the early 1990's, and recoil hurt. I was using the notably hot 125-grain Federal JHPs, as this is what I carried in my larger GP100 and S&W sixguns, and I had not yet learned the importance of holding small snubbies with the web of my hand really HIGH on the grip frame. This high hold causes recoil to dissipate through the wrist into the arm, rather than causing upward kick that hits the web of the hand. (Of course, the design, and greater mass, of the SP101 are important parts of the equation.)
Fast forward to the late 1990's, after learning to hold high and to grip hard but too hard, and I tried another SP101. This time, everything clicked. The 125-grain to-the-firewall loads are still not pleasant, but they are merely unpleasant, not painful. Winchester 145-grain Silvertips are now a favored load, when I can find it. This is not a mere middle magnum, but is not loaded to the max pressure, either, and the 145-grain bullets hit closer to point of aim with fixed-sight revolvers than the lighter-bullet loads. FWIW, this Silvertip load found much favor with peace officers in Texas, who used the 145-grain Silvertips and the 125-grain hot Federal and Remington JHPs in real-life gunfights, to good effect.
158-grain JHP ammo is also usually fine, for both point-of-impact and relatively comfortable recoil, though I find Speer Gold Dots easier to find locally.
The Speer Short Barrel Gold Dots feel like .38 +P not through any magic, but because they are loaded to quite mild velocity and pressure, a virtual .38 Special in a .357 Magnum case. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that, of course. There is good utility for such mild magnums, not the least of which is that they don't leave a ring of fouling at the front of the chamber like a .38 will.
To be clear, most of my personal experience with the SP101 is with the 2.25" version, not the 3.06". I finally bought a 3.06" only recently.
