Newton's third law dictates there must be recoil. The momentum of the projectile and gasses exiting the end of the barrel must be exactly balanced by the force of holder's hand multiplied by the time it takes to arrest all motion of the recoiling firearm.

Momentum = definite integral of force as a function of time multiplied by the duration of time where momentum and force are both specific to an equivalent directional vector.

Could also use an energy analysis. The total kinetic energy of the projectile and exiting gasses will equal the handheld force multiplied by the distance the gun moves backward - more movement backward, less average force...in the limiting case of minimal movement backward, the force will be extremely high and short-lived.