....I recall a short article about a Marlin lever gun had six or eight bullets lodged in the barrel. I believe the shooter said he felt no noticable recoil and only heard a low muffled sound every time he pulled the trigger. I agree with 2-p that there must have been sub-standard ammo involved; like no powder, maybe. Otherwise, how did the powder gas pressure bleed off? Open the action on barrel pressure and you will likely get a face full of brass and gas. None of those bullets cleared the muzzle, but if maximum pressure was developed in the chamber or just in front of it, those bullets developed some maximum acceleration and then of course deceleration. I don't think this was the case.
My take on this story.
DDA
Try oldwestgunsmith.com/whatsnew.htm for an example. There are others that seem to be easy to search, but the author of this example likely has some credibility. It's a similar theme, some bore obstruction, usually a squib load, and then some actions and barrels manage to contain/vent multiple shots, bulge or no bulge. I thought it was a take on your original recoil comment.
Kind of an extreme example and not mentioned in this account was the thought I was trying to bring across. I suspect mass, bullet and gas, has to separate from the gun (out the muzzle with velocity) to feel what most folks consider recoil. Maybe, the near equal force of stopping the bullet within the gun and venting gasses laterally somewhere, doesn't 'recoil' the rifle in a familiar way even though the bullet could be shown to have accelerated. I'd be pretty sure movement could be felt by the shooter, but I don't know if they would call it 'felt recoil'.
