Metal detecting is becoming increasingly popular as people search for a hobby which is interesting but doesn’t have a huge learning curve attached to it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying metal detecting is easy to master, what I’m saying is that almost anyone can pick up a book and cheap metal detector and get out there to enjoy this hobby in just a few hours time, but anyone who wants to go deeper can spend years mastering an expensive metal detector and learning about the items they find.
There have been some high profile finds recently which is definitely helping to get people involved in this hobby, and as more and more people get involved then hopefully land owners will be more amenable to letting people search on their land, because without land to search on then this hobby can’t continue. Getting permission to detect on someone’s land is one of the hardest parts of this hobby, but fortunately you can join a club (if there is one near you) and they take care of that for you so you can just go out with them and enjoy yourself.
Don’t be entranced by the high profile finds people have reported though, don’t go out there expecting to find hordes of gold all the time, often only very basic items are dug up by people out detecting, valuable items are much rarer. But just because an item is not worth anything or might not be a beautiful piece of metalwork, then the fun is in the hunt to find it, and then the hunt to find out what it was and who would have used it. As you explore the history of the item then you might find out some really interesting things, like it could have belonged to the lord of the local area, or it could be thousands of years old and then you get to hold in your hand something which someone purchased or made all those years ago, your very own link with the past.
Obviously the best places to detect are those areas where lots of people have lived or passed through for hundreds or thousands of years, then you stand a good chance of people dropping metal items for you to find. Europe is probably the best place for this and all the major hordes I know about have been found there.
So one of the best ways to get started is to get yourself a few good books on the subject and then join a local club and getting their advice on which detector you should start out with. With their help then you can get a metal detector which gives you clear signals so you don’t get confused by all the readings it gives you, but is still powerful enough to make some really good finds – good luck!
If you want to get some books then check out MetalDetectingBooks.net which shows you 9 of the best ones you can get.
