I've been shooting the black Axis shafts for about 10 years now and have never had a shaft break. On dead center hits on my basement concrete wall, (TP) the end of the shaft might mushroom an eight to a quarter inch as the point is driven back into the shaft, but that's about it. I expect if I used epoxy rather than hot melt on the inserts, even that wouldn't occur. I've also driven field points into trees with no ill effects on the shaft. Stump shooting, I've had shafts glance off of rocks and trees countless times without ever breaking a shaft. They're plenty tough for me.