I owned a very frustrating rifle many years ago that had an issue with the first or fouling shot down a clean barrel. It was a Sharps 1874 from Big Timber MT, one of the long range express rifles in 45-90.
It would consistently put the first bullet through the paper 6" high and to the left of center at 100 yds, after that it was dead on, remarkably accurate and stayed that way until I got home to clean it after shooting. On the advise of an old and wise local barrel maker who had seen this before, I cut and recrowned behind the front sight dove tail losing about 2 inches of the 34 inch barrel.
This solved the problem, but to this day I don't know why. Visual inspection of the inside of that bore showed no irregularity and it was uniform in all respects. So in conclusion I guess I learned something but don't ask me what it was. David.
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