I have two of them, and enjoy them a great deal. I picked up a S&W 500 with an 8 3/8" barrel a year or two ago, when my favorite gun shop offered me a screaming deal on it (I was purchasing a S&W .44 Magnum - "pre-29" at that time), and I just couldn't pass it up. I had been intrigued by the caliber since it was introduced, but had not wanted to spend that much on a gun which I wasn't sure I would like, especially since it had the lock (still don't like the lock, but you can't get a 500 without it). After reading all the ballyhoo about the terrible recoil, I approached my first range session with it with a degree of concern, but quickly found it to be quite manageable, and certainly not the killer of women and children the recoil had been made out to be. Honestly, the weight of the gun and the excellent recoil absorption properties of the grips make it quite nice to shoot, at most, on a level of a .44 Mag with factory loads. BTW, I generally loathe rubber grips, but they are staying on my two .500s.
Some time after buying my 8 3/8" gun, the same shop got a 4" gun in, and offered it to me at another incredible price, and I couldn't resist it, either. I usually save the 500s 'til the end of my range sessions, especially if I'm shooting heavy loads. The first time I took the 4" gun out, I was shooting some fairly hot 350 grain loads, which run about 1850-1900 fps out of the long tube gun, and are not unpleasant to fire in it. When I fired them in the 4" gun, however, I was not pleased. First, it was spitting lead back at my face (not fun). Second, although the recoil was not, seemingly, that much greater than the long tube gun, the muzzle blast from that short barrel and its compensator was, well, annoying. I really did not like the gun at that point, and seriously considered selling it. However, at the next range session, I decided to try it again. I had cleaned the gun far more thoroughly than I did after I bought it, and got a fair amount of leading out of the barrel and forcing cone, curing the "spitting" problem. I had also switched to some loads I had made up with some 420 grain hollowpoints and some 450 grain solids that I had cast. Those loads worked well out of the long tube gun, and were quite pleasant to shoot. It was with some trepidation that I loaded the 4", as my previous session with it, though cut short, was not really all that pleasant. Imagine my surprise when the new loads made that gun a LOT of fun to shoot. Overall, recoil was definitely greater than the long-barrel gun, and about on par with, or a bit heavier than, a heavy-loaded .44 Mag, the muzzle blast was nowhere near as bad as with those other loads (actually, I hardly noticed the muzzle blast), and it turned out to be so much fun that I shot about 75 or 80 rounds through it, and only shot about 25-30 in the long-tube gun! Pardon the pun, but it was a BLAST! That gun (nicknamed Little Betty Boomn - inspired by Betty Boop - the only other gun in my battery which carries a name) quickly went from being soundly disliked to one of my favorites! It is amazing what a difference a load appropriate to the gun makes. This is no powder-puff load, either - I haven't gotten around to chronoing it yet, but I was using six gallon water jugs filled with loose dirt/sand placed in line as an experimental bullet trap, and nearly all of those bullets passed through all of them, and each impact was impressive, blowing large clouds of sand and dirt out of all the jugs, while destroying most of the jugs and making them fly in all directions!
One other thing, both guns are extremely accurate. I have shot the long tube gun over the 100 yard range extensivey, and it shoots very small groups. It also shoots very well at 150 to 200 yards. The trajectory is quite flat, especially for a handgun, and I don't anticipate any problem taking game with it at distances of 150 yards or more. I haven't fired the 4" at ranges of more than 100 yards, yet, but it, too, shows very good accuracy at ranges of 50-100 yards.
We have a lot of bears up here in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona, and there have been a lot of human/bear problems over the years. I am always armed when out and about, and always pack one of the 500s when I am in Bear country. Having witnessed the difference in impact between the 500s and my .44 Magnums, there is absolutely no contest as to which I will carry for that purpose.
The .500 Magnum isn't for everybody; however, I truly recommend that nobody just decides not to try it simply because they have read all the "macho" BS about how bad the recoil is. The guns are very well made, and are capable of excellent accuracy. Just approach it with an open mind, without deciding before firing one that the recoil is just too terrible to deal with, and you might be pleasantly surprised. Just don't try a 700 grain max load as your first exposure, or a very fast "light" (350 grains is light in this caliber) with a short barrel gun.
Just had to.
so far I haven't had anything spit back at my face. 
