Backstory, my father several years back purchased an Armscor/ Rock Island 1911 Commander, the model with the basic GI sights. It became his favorite gun rapidly, and he shot it as extensively as his limited ammo budget allowed. However, on one range session its front sight departed, never again to guide Holy Hardball to the paper demons. We took it to the local dremel and duracoat surgeons that call themselves gunsmiths to have the sights replaced with their recommended Meprolights.
After 7 months and no response (on a six-week quoted turnaround) we finally called them for a status update, the status being that they had left the slide on the store counter where we had dropped it off , and forgot about it. After many more broken promises and runarounds we finally got it back with the new sights (crookedly) installed.
Oh well, if it shoots straight, who cares. Miraculously, it does! For two range trips at least. Then the front sight joins its predecessor in whatever hell betrayers and telemarketers go to.
I would like to get some decent sights installed on this thing for him, as he is reluctant to sell it because it has worked well for him, and he has the understandable aversion to letting go of guns, after having regretted selling off most of his( now very expensive) "junk" guns when he was younger. So it just sits in the safe, with us being gun-shy about "gunsmiths", and in the current environment, not feasible to economically replace.
Any recommendations on how to proceed?