I have an SP101 in 327 magnum. It will also shoot several other milder 32 rounds. My wife (ruined wrists) and daughter (eleven years old) shoot it easily with 32 H&R magnum, which is a respectable round. They shoot 32 S&W long for target practice, which feels about like a 22, though throwing a much larger chunk of lead.
My friend also has an SP101, in 357. My problem with both his and mine is that the factory grips are imho horrible. Most people very much prefer the Hogue monogrip. I thought it was an improvement. But with my huge hands I went one better and got large exotic wood grips for it. My friend has tiny hands and finds the factory grips to be perfectly acceptable.
My friend is 5'6" with tiny but strong hands. His son is 5'8" with larger but weaker hands. I am 6'6" with large hands even for my size. My buddy's SP101 is a 3" with fixed sights.
For all of us, shooting 38 special target loads was no big deal. The recoil wasn't much. The son is recoil-shy by nature, but did not object to it. Even with my enormous hands and the tiny horrible factory grips I had no problems. My tiny-handed friend could have shot it for hours. At 7 yards all of us shot it with quite acceptable combat accuracy.
The 357's were a different story. The son shot one cylinder and that was more than enough for him. I think he would have preferred to set it down after one round! His dad joshed with him a bit and tried to get him to shoot one more cylinder full. The son was having none of it. He stuck to shooting 32's out of my 327 SP101 while his dad and I finished up the box of 357's. My friend didn't have too much trouble with them. The grips are the perfect size for his small but strong hands. He does not love recoil, grimaced a few times, and was not as accurate as with the 38's, but he did fine. I did okay. I couldn't get a really good grip on it, but I am used to heavier calibers and did not find the recoil to be painful or alarming. I was more accurate with the 38's, though.
So, after the long rambling story... I got my Hogue monogrips for $10 and most people find them to be an enormous improvement. 38 special is an effective round and far easier to shoot out of an SP101 (imho). The 327 version will shoot at least four different kinds of ammo. Shooting 32 H&R magnum out if it is a great choice if you want a round on par with 38 special in effectiveness, but with significantly less recoil. The 327 magnum round is supposed to be close to the 357 in effectiveness - I found it noticeably spicier than the 32 H&R, but nowhere near 357 recoil.
That was just my two cents. Here is a gratuitous picture of my 4" 327 with the exotic wood grips.
