Both of mine do the same thing. Based on some advice from Randy at Barnes bullets, I was taking a fouled gun afield for a couple of seasons - since it shot high on the first shot, and then shot a very good group from the second to seventh shot (without any swabbing). Since then, however, I have been enlightenend on the benefits of swabbing the barrel in between shots and have discovered that the point of impact is about the same from the first shot through the fifth shot. So I now go afield with a clean gun. Which is what I wanted to do in the first place.

I think the issue is consistency . . . trying the get the same amount of barrel friction against the bullet/sabot every shot. I know people who lube every shot, some whojust shoot em and load em, manywhoswab/clean between shots.