The wheellock took around a minute to load, prepare and fire. Many contemporary illustrations of a wheellock pistol in action show the gun held slightly rotated (about 45 degree angle from the horizontal) rather than vertically as with a hand cannon, to ensure that the priming powder in the pan lay against the vent in the barrel, and avoid a 'flash in the pan' or misfire. This was not the case for the flintlock, where the sparks had to fall vertically a certain distance on to the pan.