I think metal detecting is getting more and more popular nowadays, probably because people are looking for a hobby that is enjoyable, but one that doesn’t take a lot of effort to get started with. 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 a few high profile finds on the news recently, which is definitely responsible for a surge of interest in this hobby, and hopefully it will make land owners a lot more receptive to having people detect on their lands, because they are the lifeblood of this hobby. I’d say that getting permission from a land owner is probably the hardest thing about metal detecting, but if you don’t want to bother with that hassle then you can just join a club in your local area and they do all that for you so you can just enjoy yourself.
Don’t go out there expecting to find huge quantities of gold though, often you just find really old but basic metal items that people used in their day to day lives, valuable finds 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.
The best places to detect are places where lots of people have lived for thousands of years, because then lots of metal items will have been dropped over the years and you never know what you are going to find. Europe is probably the best place for this and all the major hordes I know about have been found there.
So to get started with metal detecting then you would be best off getting some books on the subject and then joining a club and asking them for their opinion on which detector you should buy to start with. That way you will find a detector that can still make good finds, but isn’t too complicated to interpret the signals from for someone just starting out – 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.