I carry .38 Special +P, 125 gr JHP's in my Smith M60 .357 Magnum. I consider the gun, even with its 3" bbl., a close in defense gun, i.e. under 10 yds...and don't feel the need for full house 125 gr .357 JHP's. I've shot them, and found the recoil heavy but acceptable, and the muzzle flash is considerable (hell, you could incinerate the BG's if you miss!). Shooting DA, at speed, and from under 10 yds, I can keep all five shots in a coffee cup sized group. It's enough for my purposes.
As to the .38 +P's, water expansion tests that I've done show more than enough bullet expansion to satisfy my curiosity and they're a bit easier to handle for repeat shots vs. the .357, and every bit as accurate.
Here's a pic of some .38 Special bullets recovered after being shot into water (a swimming pool in fact), as well as the actual velocities over my chrono. The gun was a ~2" bbl'd. Smith M37 in .38 Special. Water is not the ideal medium but does give a repeatable resistance to bullets of different makes as well as a comparison of relative expansion. The first one on the left (also shot into the pool) is a handload, with a tailored powder charge to give it similar recoil feel to our CC loads, and is used for practice. Note the lack of any expansion, whatsoever. For the curious, I carry the Remington Golden Saber round, and suspect that it's giving me 1000 fps from my 3" Model 60.
The 2nd pic shows the M60 and its predecessor, a Smith M36, both with 3" bbls. The 3rd is my wife's S&W 637 Airweight, the gun that shot the bullets in pic one It's dressed in pretty boot grips...that are virtually useless in our hands for controlling the gun in recoil. Of the three grips depicted, the fugly rubber ones are the most comfortable with +P loads. But the wood ones fit me best.
HTH's Rod