rev, yeah there are people with physical limitations that cause sensitivity to recoil. after neck surgery my father can't handle long recoil auto's altho gas guns and winchester model 50's and 59's aren't a problem. oddly, 3" mag 20's out of a 7# sxs doesn't bother him either. but most people don't shoot so much they suffer from cumulative problems. a box of 30-06's a year because they have to to sight in and no more because it hurts them. that's purely psychological.
the shooters in the olympics or any other serious clays competition, how many hundreds of thousands of rounds have they fired yet they're so un-hampered by it they can stand there and compete successfully at the world level. doesn't seem to be having that much effect on them.
Amigo, you may be thinking of john eric hexum (spelling?) on some show but that was back in the '80's i think. he shot himself w/ a blank out of an m29 S&W IIRC. showing out, playing russian roulette with the harmless gun loaded with blanks. and lost. guns & ammo magazine did a good article back when there were some real gun writers on the damage blanks can do.
roger
