If you live and hike in that part of the US desert southwest where there are cactus, you may have met the Cholla.

This camping/hiking, maybe gear (tip) will work for other cactus varieties but lets just "stick" with cholla as an example for this tip. I am posting here because it seems too simple to qualify as a piece of gear.

Where I live cholla cactus spines are sooo special (ha) they will even puncture a ten ply truck tire, and probably will defeat body armor (without the plate), ha. I have had them work their way through the soles of my boots, and blue jeans are the same as no protection at all. It works this way, the spine laden cactus segments break off and attach themselves to anything, especially exposed flesh, boots, whatever. The plan is simple, once speared you will run wildly until it falls off, or you die, and thus transplant the cactus. For those unfamiliar with these beauties, they seem to be a cross between Velcro, and possibly some particularly spiny looking W.W.II anti-shipping mine. Like the mine, every spine will do you damage, and like Velcro they cling tenaciously once you are stuck. Subsequent panicked attempts to remove said cactus will always result in being stuck again, and again.

The good news is there is a simple piece of removal gear in most of our pockets already, just use your comb to lift/pry the segment off rather than grabbing it with flesh.

If you actually have to live with these evil plants, use long metal food serving tongs to pick up the spine loaded segments for disposal. Food serving tongs are the best thing I have found to date for dealing with a pile of cholla segments.

There are a few of us here that are very familiar with cholla

I know a comb has been brought up several times after we are on site, I don't remember if anybody has brought one. Another good tip is to bring a rake so that you don't have to reach into cholla when you are policing brass (hint, hint).

A comb might work for lightly embedded spines, but I've had to use small pliers to remove those that are really stuck well. They are the bane of the desert.

They're also VERY flammable. I remember when I first moved to AZ, I was helping my dad cut down a Cholla he had in the yard. His method was to whack off part of it with a shovel, then burn the spines with a propane torch so they were safer to throw away. I got impatient and figured I'd just burn the whole thing at once. It was a living plant and didn't think it would burn all that well. WRONG! Darn thing caught fire so fast that it almost went WOOF!

Let's just say that I went back to whacking off little pieces again.

Face it, they're genengineered alien plants that have been put here to keep us down.

Combs, pliers, and alcohol help to deal with them. The best way to deal with them, however, is to send Rob in to get the brass.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

(this is the part where BK chimes in about remembering to bring a rake)

If you do any shooting near cholla and want to gather up your brass, bring a rake!

See? Told ya.