I use a pair of thin needle nose pliers to spread the vertical legs apart (3 or 4 tries) then when it is expanded as much as it can I grab on one of the legs & whip it around to the open side & up all in one motion. it distorts the clip a bit but they are very non brittle (I forget what the word is for the opposite quality) & will easily withstand this. sometime in the future I'd like to thread the shaft for another type of holddown.