I have a friend who has an old colt 1911 that needs a front site attached. Circa 1916. Colt is will able to do this but he would rather not ship. Anyone have experience with a quality smith who can work on this? I believe he said the site is crimped on.

Should he just suck it up and let the experts handle this?

4 hours ago, brucin said:

I have a friend who has an old colt 1911 that needs a front site attached. Circa 1916. Colt is will able to do this but he would rather not ship. Anyone have experience with a quality smith who can work on this? I believe he said the site is crimped on.

Should he just suck it up and let the experts handle this?

If it's a nice example for it's age, I would definitely not risk it unless you can truly verify a local smith's talent and experience with such a gun.  I would overnight to Colt and insure the crap out of it! In the end, it's all about it's value today!