October 16th, 2020 by Becky Calvert

Metal detecting has been a popular hobby for many years, and can actually be a lot of fun for the whole family! With children being curious little creatures, they are sure to be interested in doing some treasure hunting. Here’s our handy guide to metal detecting and how it can be a fun pastime for the whole family!

What is a metal detector and how do they work?

A metal detector is basically an electronic instrument that uses electromagnetic fields to detect any presence of metallic objects underground. The majority of metal detectors are handheld and consist of a control box, shaft and search coil. The user sweeps the detector over the ground, and the transmitter coil creates a magnetic field when an electric current is passed through it. When you move the detector over a piece of metal, the magnetic field coming from the detector causes another magnetic field to appear around the metal object – the detector picks this up and alerts you to it by beeping.

What are the benefits of metal detecting?

Metal detecting comes with many benefits besides being a fun way to spend your free time. Metal detecting has health benefits, helps you to learn more about history, allows you to make new, likeminded friends, and also has possible monetary benefits.

Keeping fit

You may not have thought about this, but metal detecting can help the whole family to keep fit. There is a lot of walking and digging involved, and you’ll be spending the time detecting out in the fresh air. It will depend how long you want to spend out looking for treasure, but you are sure to burn a few calories!

Improve your mental health

Metal detecting can be a great hobby if you struggle with your mental health. It’s been proven that getting out for a walk in the fresh air can immediately make you start to feel better when you’re having a bad day, so changing your walk into a treasure hunt can help keep your mind focused on hopefully finding something, and help you leave your worries behind!

Learn about history

For many people, getting into metal detecting was the result of having a passion for history. Having the chance to find ancient artifacts that may have been buried for centuries is a really exciting part of metal detecting, and many history fans love nothing more than finding metal objects, researching them and finding out where they came from, how old they are and any other questions they may have about the objects. From doing this research you can really find out a lot about the history of your local area (or the area local to where you were detecting in).

Make new friends

Immersing yourself in the hobby will usually involving joining a metal detecting club. There are many of these based across the UK, and are a great place to get started, as there will be many helpful, friendly and knowledgeable people to help you find local places you can go detecting and may be able to assist in researching your finds. Joining a club and going to local metal detector rallies will help you to meet likeminded people and make some new friends.

Make money

A quick online search of metal detecting will no doubt bring up hundreds of pages of people finding hordes of ancient treasures and making some money from their hobby! In 2014, Derek McLennan made himself a cool £2m after unearthing the biggest hoard of Viking treasure ever found in the UK! It included silver brooches, bracelets, gold rings, gold ingots, crystals, beads and an enamelled Christian cross. While finding something this valuable is very rare, and you likely won’t be able to live off of your finds, you may still be able to make a bit of extra money along the way.

Making memories

Possibly the most enticing reason for you to introduce metal detecting to your family and start your new hobby, is the chance to make some amazing memories with your family. Imagine taking your children to your local beach and finding hidden treasure – how happy they will be, from good quality family time. Asides from the up-front cost of buying a metal detector and the accessories you will need; metal detecting is a relatively inexpensive hobby to have – so you can make memories with your family without spending a small fortune – and imagine actually making some money from finding something special! For many metal detectors, starting the day early or finishing late will mean they get to see some spectacular sun rises or sunsets, and you can appreciate our beautiful British countryside while you’re at it.

How to get the children interested

To begin with, you might want to start in your back garden – you never know what may be buried under there! To involve the children, you may want to start by hiding a few coins around the garden, first on top of the ground so they can see them before they ‘detect’ them, and then start burying a couple of coins in some loose soil. This should help to get your children interested and keen to start searching elsewhere!

Where can I go metal detecting?

There are rules in the UK governing metal detecting, so you can’t just find a random field and get started. Anywhere you wish to metal detect will require you to first obtain the landowners permission. This is why your garden is a great place to start – followed by your friends’ gardens (with their permission of course!). If you live in an old house or in an area that has a lot of history to it, you never know what you may find! Beaches are popular places to go metal detecting, and recently the permit that was required to go detecting on beaches was abolished! This means that the majority of beaches in the UK are fair game for using your metal detector. There are, however, still a small number of beaches that metal detecting is not allowed on – so we recommend double checking before you go, by using the Crown Estate Map. Beaches are typically a great place to find objects that people have previously lost on the beach, for example jewellery, phones or coins.

If you join a metal detecting club, they usually have a few (or a lot!) of places where they have already obtained permission to go detecting. Most clubs are also actively seeking new bits of land to use so joining a club is a great way to really get stuck in to the world of metal detecting!

Buying a metal detector

If you’ve decided that metal detecting is a hobby that you’d love for your family to do together, then first port of call is to actually purchase one! Our MYLEK XP PRO Metal Detector for Adults and Children is a brilliant piece of kit, and comes with everything you need to get started! Included with the detector is a 4-in-1 Multi-tool which can be used as a pick, shovel, drain spade and a compass, a set of headphones to help you enjoy your metal detecting undisturbed (for better concentration!), and an accessory pouch. This detector is very lightweight with an adjustable stem that can be adjusted from 108 to 135cm, which is why it is suitable for both kids and adults – and its large backlit LCD screen is easy to read and change the settings on, meaning it’s easy for the whole family to use. You can adjust the settings however you like, with advanced discrimination technology allowing you to refine your search, ignoring scrap metal and focusing on more valuable metals like silver and gold. It is suitable to handle any terrain, from rocky ground to woodland, plus it has a waterproof coil which means you can even use it in shallow water! The arm rest means you can also comfortably use the detector for long periods. This metal detector really can do it all – which is why it is the perfect choice for both beginners and experienced users alike!

MYLEK XP PLUS All-Terrain Metal Detector Kit

Price: £74.99

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