I’ve had a charge in our flintlock for a couple of seasons. I realize that is not necessarily safe.
Will it still work or do I have to disassemble it and pull out the ball and powder?

You could try to shoot it out, sure. Make sure it is fully seated first. Then pick the touch hole really well, prime heavy and let er rip.
If that fails, you can try pulling the ball. There are ball pullers that look like a wood screw. Mounted on a loading rod, screw it into the ball and pull the ball out. Pouring some oil down the barrel first may help the pulling go a bit easier.
Then soak the powder charge with water and clean it all out.

I do have the ball puller thank you. It’s been indoors I just don’t want to necessarily trust it for hunting unless I get a new charge in there.

I wouldn't trust that load at all, for anything that mattered.

Hopefully the powder charge has remained dry all this time.

I would advise you to remove that charge and start with a fresh one, as per k snow's suggestions.

One thing I would add is that if you attempt to fire it out, even if the gun does not go off immediately, there is the potential of a hang fire given the age of the charge in there. It still may fire but not immediately so be very careful with it and pointed safely down range.

Good luck! Keep yer nose to the wind and yer powder dry!

Moosetrot

Good point, Moosetrot. I've had hangfires that were 10-15 seconds later than the prime going off. So hang on and wait a good while before trying anything after a "misfire".

make sure the ball is seated on the powder use a couple of lubed patches to make sure the barrel is lubed up good this is less for if it goes bang and more for if it doesn't
pick the vent
set a priming charge in the pan
safe direction and fire it
if it goes , clean , lube and load up when you get to season.
you could try picking again and a second priming charge
if it didn't go leave it pointed down range for several minutes

if it doesn't fire
C02 discharger is an option , air compressor blow gun maybe an option also while keeping the muzzle in a safe direction.(even under air pressure they can come out rather fast when they do)
if that doesn't work , ball puller
my opinion is Track of the wolf has the ball puller with the best geometry you get about 5 turns into the ball then well lubed with moose milk or similar pull it
technically a soak with the vent in a bucket of water is approved procedure but if you tried firing it , left it pointed down range 10 minutes , then tried a co2 discharge and still didn't and had to order a ball puller , I am not sure I would worry about the hour soak

That Hangup happened to my husband. It was short but he held still and it DID indeed fire. Thank you guys. Flintlock is my favorite only second to setting traps!!

My dad left a load in for 5 years, I never knew about it. He decided to go out in the late season with me and shot a doe with it. He told me that load was in for at least 5 years and went off like a fresh load. It was kept in a safe with a golden rod so that probably helped to keep the humidity from soaking in.

If it was a percussion gun I would not worry about the soak but given that is is a flintlock the pan would have to be absolutely cleaned and wet in front of me before I would attempt to pull the ball. Just my .02.

Moosetrot

if it was a percussion gun most people would pull the nipple put about 1/2 a 22 lr case of BP down the hole shake it into the flash channel and replace the nipple, cap and fire it all out the end. then clean it all well.

that is not an officially approved safe way to do it but it is how it gets done about 75% of the time.

X2

Several times I've let my flintlock sit loaded from the end of one season to the beginning of the next. Always in years I didn't get a shot so the barrel was clean. I keep it in a gun cabinet muzzle down.

I always fire it, clean it and reload it before the start of a new season. So far it's fired each time.

I like to store all muzzle loaders muzzle down especially when empty

here is the reasoning

we clean and lube with bore butter or wonder lube , that is good but on hot days bore butter and wonder lube get soft and can run

if muzzle up they run into the flash channel , patten breach, and when you fire it makes a mess of fouling , a few shots in all gummed up in the flash channel

if muzzle down it runs to the rag you set the muzzle on

with 4-H we clean and put them up for the year
year to year I had a LOT less ignition issues with muzzle down
my sample size is now 7 years with 6 rifles , I am a fan of muzzle down it makes a lot less work for me on muzzle loader day
I had one not get left muzzle down this last year and it was my problem this year had to stop and clean

I agree but we do not know what experience level we are dealing with and if the flint somehow comes down on the frizzen sparks will occur and ignition is a possibility. I dealt with a lot of issues with muzzleloaders when I owned a shop over here...."Black Otter Trading Co. Purveyors of fine Accoutrements of the American Past" Fancy name eh?

Moosetrot

Speaking of Bore Butter, a former Game Warden over here stored his ML in a closet with Bore Butter in the barrel. After nearly a year he took it out and found that the Chinese beatles had packed themselves into his barrel and they caused a lot of corrosion.

Moosetrot

I wasn't saying to not wipe the pan with moose milk or similar or soak

take precautions as you see , a leather under the rock , a clean pan , open frizen wiped is all good

I was making a statement about cap-locks and the typical treatment they get.

if you didn't load it , you don't know what your dealing with down that pipe so all the precautions soak and pull.
I forget what civil war battle it was maybe Antietam they cataloged all the pick up rifles and how many had charges and balls down the pipe , it was a lot and some had up to 4 charges and balls stacked.

Shade tree guy way.
Remove nipple.
Thread in zerk fitting.
Pump out charge with grease gun.
Remove zerk.
Blow barrel out with air.

I have done that with compressed air. It blew the ball out with enough force to put a dent in the edge of my work bench.

why I say still in a safe direction with compressed air or co2, more than a couple of people have put it through the drywall in the garage when they did it