You wrote:
When I waa collecting on Okinawa, I was frequently asked to pick up some
rather large Conus geographus (10 cm+) .  My metod (bare handed) was to
grasp the shell at the base and watch it very carefully as you transfer it
to a bucket (not a sock).  If the critter even started to emerge, I would
drop it and the shock would cause the animal to retreat immediately,
 
May I just add this:
"The only fatal case of which definite information is available is the
following, reported by Professor Cleland in the Sixth Report of the
Microbiological Laboratory (New South Wales Government Bureau of
Microbiology) for the year 1915. Professor Cleland quotes the following
Reverend W. Wyatt Gill. On the island of Mare (southernmost of the Loyalty
Group, immediately to the east of New Caledonia), in the doubtful light, a
native "unhappily took a good-sized shellfish (Conus textile) and put it in
his basket. He immediately felt a painful sensation running up his right
arm to the shoulder. He went home. The pain increased until he writhed in
agony The body swelled to an enormous size, and by daylight he was a corpse."
 
NEED I SAY MORE    MJB