But first, a little background.
I consider myself an analytical troubleshooter. No pun intended.
I also consider myself somewhat aware of the psychological/neurological condition of the human mind/brain.
I was lurking on this site for a few months before I enlisted. This coincided with the decision to get my CHL and to acquire a pistol. In monitoring the various postings, I took notice of two things: 1) When things happen, they happen fast, 2) in stressful situations, cognitive functions become limited, and 3)many members speak of the many and various handgun models and brands that they carry or have at hand. As a pilot, I am well aware of 1) and 2).
Each handgun has a myriad of differing options - safety/no safety, safety down/safety up, yes/no to magazine interlock, DAO/SA-DA, left/right-hand oriented controls, etc. You get the picture. While I am fully aware of the adaptability of the human brain, in having so many handguns, I questioned the wisdom of always having to figure out which handgun, with all of the possible combinations of differences, one was carrying. Given 1), 2), and 3) above, it seems that additional difficulties are created at the very moment of greatest need.
I'm not sure exactly why it happened, but I did wind up owning 2 pistols. Same brand, same design. The one difference was that one came with a higher-capacity 17-round magazine, and the other pistol was a smaller version, with a 13-round capacity.
Finally
, I'm getting to the story. I was at the range yesterday, with the smaller pistol. In getting set up, I inserted (with vigor) the magazine into the pistol. It jammed about about 3/4 of the way in. From that point, I couldn't push it in any farther, nor could I extract it, even with considerable force applied. I was able to rack the slide to empty the magazine and called an instructor over. He looked at it, pushed and pulled, and all of a sudden the magazine fell out. "What'd you do?", I wanted to know. "I pushed the magazine release button," he replied. 
Duh. I had inserted the longer, high-capacity magazine. Since I didn't know that I even had it with me, it never occurred to me to think along those lines. The magazine had "jammed" and that was my focus. In a tight situation, with the aspects of 1), 2), and 3) in effect, I would have been many steps behind.
For me at least, I have once more established what I have long known to be true: In a time of stress of any kind, initially there is only reaction, and when the steps of a process happen as anticipated (hoped for), all is well. However, in the type of situations that are normally discussed here, it seems that any hesitation or hiccup - anything that takes your attention away from the normal process - can be immediately dangerous.
So, I ask those of you with the multiple pistols and their differing designs, "How do/would you truly counter those effects?"
now where did I place my coloring crayons 
Some people put oversized ones or round ones on ... I left mine alone but drilled a hole in my holster so it doesn't get pushed by accident.
