Uhmmm... how much thought have you really given to 9MM? Its slightly bigger than what you are asking for, but I shot a Glock 19 recently... there was just about no recoil. Glocks are great at absorbing recoil in general, and I don't think you'd have a problem with the 19 or 17. If you go with a compensated version it should be really smooth sailing. And there's no law that says you have to use a +P+!!! You could select a somewhat weaker 9MM load... that will be within the .38 power range.
With a weak 9MM in a low recoil gun like the G17C you get a lot of perks:
*Great reliability/Safety (I was going to suggest the FN 5.7 but I've heard about those shooting out of battery and exploding!)
*The best ammo capacity (up to 33+1 rounds)
*Cheap ammo, that will also give you compatibility guns you may want to consider CCing
*Lighter gun & trigger pull than many, if not most, comparably revolvers
With a weak 9MM in a low recoil gun like the G17C you get a lot of perks:
*Great reliability/Safety (I was going to suggest the FN 5.7 but I've heard about those shooting out of battery and exploding!)
*The best ammo capacity (up to 33+1 rounds)
*Cheap ammo, that will also give you compatibility guns you may want to consider CCing
*Lighter gun & trigger pull than many, if not most, comparably revolvers
