the first broken rod was my Winston BIIx 6wt, whose dark green 3rd section looked like a perfect lightsaber sword to a 3 yr old who had just finished watching the return of the jedi. Stupid door, take that, you evil sith! The first of many times that my son has taken years off of my life expectancy. The second break was entirely my fault, because when one is throwing a 325 grain shooting head, one should always check to see that the ferrules are always seated. Otherwise, when one starts to power forward with the double haul, one hears a sharp crack by ones ear as it goes by in a broken mess. I fell off of the ladder trying to retrieve the broken section as it sailed off into oblivion. I did save it, at the cost of water filled waders and broken pride.....so the moral of the story is to check the ferrules, and never let a 3 year old know where ones rods are stored...