A few years ago at a local Izaak Walton League fundraiser, I picked up a Browning Silaflex STD 022975 in what appeared to be great condition.
The shipping tube it was in indicates it was sent to Des Moines, IA from someone at Fly Fisherman Magazine in Manchester, VT in 1976.
This rod is a 2 piece rod, with what looks to my eye to be a tip-over-butt fiberglass ferrule, or perhaps a sleeve ferrule of some sort. Upon taking it home, I assembled it and the male butt end only goes into the tip section 1.125". In the image below I assembled it and dusted the exposed butt with a bit of carpentry chalk to show how much (or how little) ferrule overlap there is.
My question is whether 1.125" is too shallow for seating depth of this ferrule and it could break with normal use? Should I take some fine sandpaper to the tip of the butt section to nominally reduce its diameter to seat farther within the ferrule? (I think the previous owner may have done a bit of that too, if you look at the photo closely you can see a matte surface versus the gloss of the rest of the blank).
Thanks for any advice!