I’m with vilas on this. Stroke the throttle a few times and then crank the engine. Can’t remember if we started in auto rich or auto lean. And count at least 6 blades to insure there’s no hydraulic lock. The prop is geared just a bit less than 1 to 2. Don’t know why you’d have to use your foot to move the mixture even if you were starting on the primer. Right hand up working the starter, booster and primer. Left hand gets the mag at 6 blades and drops down to the mixture.
On the R2800 we started on the primer and brought the mixture up when the engine was running.