It's a long story... (anyone remember HD Rifles or Jeff "Celt" Hicks?)

[High-Flyer118]

It's been 15 years since anyone here has probably heard the name "Jeff Hicks" or "Celt".

I stumbled across this forum site while trying to find more about him. He's my father.

I know some people here have had some bad experiences and his reputation here isn't the best... The point being, is I want to know if anyone can help me find one of the firearms that he had a hand in making. I also wanted to hear why he has such a mixed reputation on this forum. 15 years is a long time, but maybe someone knows something. I know that he made custom guns, using L96A1 stocks with Remington 700 barrels, but not much else.

I can't wait to see if anyone responds to this...

~118

 

[THEIS]

Hi,

Well you probably just want to go ahead and delete this thread because you are not going to get any good "feeling" information here whatsoever.

Question though.......Are you some long lost son or what? I ask because it makes zero sense as to how you would not know the answers to your "reputation" question.

Here is a thread from years and years ago but pay close attention to the ONLY reply to it.

Sincerely,
Theis

 

[Fig]

Me trying to resist posting memes in this thread:

 

[High-Flyer118]

Hi,

Well you probably just want to go ahead and delete this thread because you are not going to get any good "feeling" information here whatsoever.

Question though.......Are you some long lost son or what? I ask because it makes zero sense as to how you would not know the answers to your "reputation" question.

Here is a thread from years and years ago but pay close attention to the ONLY reply to it.

View attachment 7679237

Sincerely,
Theis

Thanks for your response...
I'm certainly not long or lost, I just kind of want to hear it from the horse's mouth on the drama. I've heard his side of everything, but even with reading old forum posts on here, I don't entirely understand what happened. What transpired at HD Rifles led to a long part of my childhood that I never got to see my father. And from what I can put together, he was a very successful gunsmith who was screwed over by his coworkers and his reputation was tarnished. Now that I'm older, I want to piece together the story of my childhood and... In a strange way, I want to own a piece of machinery my dad made. I was too young to understand what was happening in my childhood and I want to know about it from another source. I figure there is no harm in asking since he was active here years ago and it's one of the significant places that his name comes up on the internet.

 

[RTH1800]

This cannot end well.

 

[zink14]

When I got back from Iraq I had him build me a rifle, even went to visit him in del rio, gave him a boonie cap embroidered with Celt in Arabic….he was in the process of doing the snipers paradise group buy. He got in way over his head, I believe he under bid that rifle build by a lot, and took too much work on too fast. I eventually got my rifle, and it shot well but the bs and lies it took to get the rifle made me dislike it I ended up selling it

 

[ragsflh]

welcome

 

[brass308]

I knew Jeff long ago, and you when you were just a little boy. If you're still around on here, PM me.