Hi Steve, The two time-honored techniques for loostening the columellar attachments of gastropods, prior to removal of the soft parts from the shell, are boiling and freezing/thawing. Both work well for a shell collector's purposes. However, shell collectors are not usually concerned about keeping the "body" intact, just getting it out; and neither method guarantees that the entire soft parts will come out intact. The outer, more muscular parts usually come out intact, but as often as not the soft glandular parts in the spire break off and have to be flushed out with a high pressure stream of water. Still, the wider and less numerous the whorls, the better the chances of extracting it intact. Such "open" shells as Polinices and Littorina work pretty well. Multi-whorled forms like Turris and Terebra do not. I'd guess that Tegula should not be too difficult. At least some of them should come out intact after boiling. If you are really lucky, you might be able to shake them out or flush them out intact. But usually it is necessary to hook them with a bent pin or a dental tool inserted into the foot, and pull them out. Remove them with a gentle twisting action - don't pull straight out. (Kind of "unscrew" them from the shell). And do it while they are still warm. After cooling, they are tougher. Paul M.