Thats why I put a tooth pick or bird feather in the touch hole, and a stall on the frizzen.Yep, "they" say a flintlock will fire once out of twenty tries with no priming in the pan. You beat the odds! I'm sure that the better one's rifle sparks, those odds improve. And of course, "once out twenty" does not mean that "once" comes after 19. Could be #1, #6, #12, etc.