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Larry M - The Rick island sights re dovetailed, and are fairly simple to change out. There are several different choices available in the 'aftermarket'. The sights are plain black, notched rear. Don't own this one, but have owned matte nickel finish guns, and they have actually been very good to resist wear. I'd say they showed holster wear less than the blue/black finish guns. Any gun finish will scratch, and will show the scratches. Matte Nickel is as 'durable' as any in that respect. My personal preference however is (1) a deeply blued, highly polished finish (which has to be 'babied' to keep looking its best) or (2) a good, rich black finish, such as Dan Wesson's 'duty black', or even Glock's black finish. . Hope this helps somewhat.

Larry, it wears slightly better than the blued version. You will only notice smooth spots in the finish after repeated holstering but much less noticeable compared to blued. The sights are dovetailed and easily replaceable.

The nickel plating on the RIA guns is fairly thin, I had the polished nickel in 38 Super for a few years, it's not bad considering the price but it did start to flake a little bit. The sights are plain black. That all said, RIA makes a great 1911 for the money and I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one. The ones I've owned shot as well as a lot of my higher priced guns. They have excellent service as well.