Put a new flint in it, cock it on an empty chamber and hit the trigger. Pay attention to the spark. It it sparks good, your all set. There is cases where you wear out the frizzen. It gets soft. You can harden them again or simply purchase a new frizzen and replace it. But you have to shoot A LOT to do wear one out. Your frizzen would be all clawed up if that were the case. I am guessing that it will be just fine.

Also when you load the rifle... dump your powder, black powder only, and then turn the rifle to the lock side down. You can then slap the lock. This will knock powder up behind the touch hole. Another way is purchase some hairy pipe cleaners at a craft store. Push one of them in the touch hole and then close the frizzen to hold it in place. Now load the powder and and ball.

When your ready to load the pan, open the frizzen cover and SLOWLY pull that pipe cleaner out. That drags powder behind the touch hole and also insures that the hole is open and clear. Dump 3 grains of 3 or 4f powder in the pan. You have to experiment. Some like the powder close to the touch hole while others like it center pan. The trouble with the powder too close to the touch hole is you can sometimes get a fuse effect. Its still fast. But when you fire it, listen to the pan ignition and then the main charge. They should be almost one in the same. If you hear ... tick--- boom, try moving the powder to a different spot in the pan.

Every few shots take a patch and wipe out the pan and wipe the nose of the flint off. Keep it clean of fouling so you get a good solid spark.

Other then that, have fun. I have several flintlocks... and they are just a lot of fun to shoot. My T/C Hawkens has a real fast lock... all three of them.