carrying a flinter unprimed while hunting is like carrying your rifle without bullets in the chamber....i know all the books ect say not to prime till your set up.....but keep your muzzle in a safe direction at all times like it should be and you should be fine.....before i shot i make sure to give the stock a good tap or 2 becuase my gun fires best when the priming charge is level.....and i change my priming powder ALL the time....you barely use ANY....when you dump your pan you loose a tinnnnny bit....not like its expensive to dump and reprime or anything.....even when im sitting i check it every half hour-hour... once i hunted hard all morning with dad to seen nothing...got home went out alone behind the house.....took a lunch, water and my gear....sat there and ate my lunch...and it was nice and warm about 130-2 oclock and i dozed off.....woke up ate an apple and a deer came....cracked back the hammer...went to fire....FLASH....no boom...when i tossed my rifle all over the place sleeping eating ect the pan charge got all tossed around and wasnt where it needed to be.....deer did stick around but the second shot wasnt where it needed to be..but we wont get into that........about wet weather.....i use a cows knee also.....and am always repriming.....theres days in the rain ill use all of hte priming charge my primer holds......but at the end of the day my rifle still fires......i never keep my rifle loaded.......coming home after a hunt and cleaning it became part of the style i guess.....dad doesnt want me keeping it loaded in the house and i wont bring it in the house anyways....i may keep in in the garage this year....its outside and in the winter its dry and noones in there but me.......only on nice days though.....and when i know im hunting the next day.......

I got the synthetic camo stock/ nickel barrel one. Cost me $230 at D&R Sports on the net. The lock and pan fit real tight to the barrel. The flint is in toward the barrel side of the frizzen but I wouldn't know whether that is good or not, (no experience in that area). I like it, but then again I know no better. If I handled and shot a $500 gun I would probably see what the differences are. It has a 1:48 twist I think. Good for conicals and sabots no? It is light and pretty and short too. As for reliability, as I said before, as long as I was generous with the primer amount and put a little against the touch hole it went quick. I cleaned the flint and frizzen every shot with alcohol. I shot 8 loads using powerbelts and did NOT swab at all. The 8th powerbelt went down the barrel as easily as the first, so I didn't see the need. Now THAT is convenient. Next time I shoot I am going to swab between every shot though because I want to replicate the conditions that I will be hunting with, a clean barrel, and see how my groups come together.

When walking in or out in the dark with a flashlight, my flintlocks are not primed;
When seated on a stand, they're at full cock with a frizzen cover;
All other times during hunting hours, they're primed at half cock;

I hunt birds (doves) with a 20 bore flinter, and it's kinda tough not carrying it primed. Muzzle control is the key, keep it pointing in a safe direction. BTW, an UNPRIMED flinter can still fire. If you are unlucky, sparks can flash thru the vent and fire the main charge, without priming.