I carry a scandium .357 Magnum sometimes, which is even lighter than the Airweight pistols by 2 or 3 ounces, and far more powerful than .38 +P.......and I carry it with for-realz .357 ammo on board, not .38 +P like a lot of other people with pocket-sized .357s do. My wife owns a 642 Airweight (.38 Special +P), which she doesn't carry because she prefers her Kahr CW9, and I
used to own another 642 Airweight of my own, which I traded with another forum member for a stainless steel 640 .357. The trigger pulls on the .357 guns are noticeably better than triggers on the .38 Special models.....at least that is my experience. The pull weight seems to be marginally lighter and a little smoother on the .357s, not stacking up quite so much toward the end of the stroke.
Anyway, there are two issues to be considered in carrying lightweight revolvers in .357 Magnum/.38 Special. One issue is mastering the trigger, and the other is mastering the recoil. v-rog is right, recoil can be stout on these little guns. There just isn't anyway around it. You can't really
tame it.....it's a big bang going off in a small gun. But, you CAN moderate its effects
somewhat (but not entirely) with good technique (which comes from studious repetitive practice). You just have to get used to it, and there's only one way to do that, and that is to go out and shoot the little darling.
Load selection is
really important, maybe even more important than it is in any other kind of pistol. If you don't believe me, read this little gem:
viewtopic.php?p=490416#p490416" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. You'll need something grunt to achieve the maximum velocity you can attain in the minimalist 1.875" barrel you've got to work with; but you need to be able to shoot it without breaking the small bones of your hands, or blinding yourself with a fairly impressive fireball in low light, due to incompletely burned powder igniting on its way outside the barrel. I often refer to my own experience, because that's all I can knowledgeably describe, but in these light pistols, I found that the difference in sensation between shooting light/fast bullets versus heavy/fast bullets was this: light and fast stings your hand; heavy and fast hits it like a ball-peen hammer. One of them is merely a distraction. The other actually hurts. Again, read the link I've provided above.
I own a .44 Magnum which I LOVE to shoot, and most of my carry guns are .45 ACP. The one 9mm I carry is an itty-bitty thing (Kahr PM9), so I am no stranger to recoil, and it really doesn't bother me that much......but it took some getting used to it, many years ago. My own experience with carrying a +P .38 Special was to settle on bullets in the 125 grain range, and specifically, I carried Remington +P Golden Sabres. That was what I could shoot best then, but there are loads in existence now that weren't offered back then. Today, I'd start with something like the Hornady 110 +P Critical Defense load. I carry the 125 grain .357 version of this load, and in that caliber Hornady claims 1200 fps and 400 ft lb out of a 2" barrel for it. They claim 1090/290 out of a 4" barrel for the 110 grain .38 Special +P, so I'm guessing something like maybe 900 fps out of a 2" barrel, and that is substantial for a .38 Special.
Other's may prefer to carry a much heavier bullet.....stuff in the 158 grain range. Not a thing wrong with that, but this is my observation, again from my own personal experience: you've only got 1.875" of barrel in which to develop enough velocity to propel the bullet to within its terminal performance envelope. If you want to shoot 158s, that means a
REALLY big bang! If it actually
hurts your hand to shoot it, will you take the followup shot that is almost certainly necessary? OTH, if all it does is sting your hand a bit like a lighter +P, then you many not even notice it in a shooting situation. Typically, you'd want to carry the heavy bullets in a longer barreled gun, but snubbies force you to compromise in the interest of concealability. Others may disagree, and I'm not even saying they're wrong, but my own opinion is that +P .38 snubbies (or .357 snubbies stoked with .38 +P ammo.....which is one of the reasons I bought a .357 for its flexibility, and not a .38) are best carried with a load in the 110 to 130 grain range....but that's just me. YMMV.
I carry a 340PD from time to time with full load of .357.
The little J frames are great. 
