After reading your post Gary I have rang the retailer at smoko time and spoke to the guy who sold me the rod about the excessively tight fit and having to wrestle with the rod to get it apart and he is happy for me to take it back for an exchange and is happy to let me change to the LR model, he did say he usually fits the rods together before letting them out of the shop but because we were talking about trout fishing etc it slipped his mind he did say it is not the first time he has had to exchange the model veritas rods like I bought.