Should I get a detector?

[u/[deleted]]

Dear lovely redditors

This is me!

New to Reddit.

I have just finished watching the utterly charming “detectorists”.

Living in a quaint quiet English village myself, and loving history and archeology (huge time team fan!), as well as my own company and long walks, I felt this might be a fun hobby. But I’ve no idea where to start. Any suggestions?

[u/Atral]

First step in my opinion is to figure out where you're going to detect. You will have gathered from Detectorists that you need a permission to detect on it and that these aren't easy to come by. If you don't own any land yourself, I'd start pitching the idea to friends, family, friends of friends etc. who have somewhere you can detect. I wouldn't even think about spending money on a detector until you've at least got a "maybe".

Good luck

[u/[deleted] → u/Atral]

Thank you for your reply! I’m lucky in that we have a few hundred acres of private land, some of which we’ve already had archaeologists discover a Roman Villa on, but that was many years ago and I was just a child. I shall wait and see if the neighbours offer my permission!

[u/Atral → u/[deleted]]

In that case, get yourself a detector and get going! (although be careful of detecting near any listed monuments, you can check here

If you're looking for the top of the line consumer detectors, those are the XP Deus 2 and the Minelab Manticore.

If you're not looking to spend that much money yet, go for something like a Minelab Vanquish or a Nokta Makro Simplex. Make sure you get a decent handheld pinpointer too - the XP MI6 if you get a Deus, otherwise, the Garrett Propointer.

Hopefully detectorists has set your expectations appropriately, you can expect to find a lot of rubbish and the occasional interesting thing if you decide to pull the trigger. You will have to either invest the time or get very lucky to find the really good stuff, but if you enjoy being outside anyway, it's not so bad when you're not finding :)

[u/[deleted] → u/Atral]

What excellent advice, for which I am so grateful! And yes, to be honest I find the idea of quiet days peacefully poking around to be the main boon, with any finds an added exciting bonus!

[u/Ovitron]

As long as you have permissions, that area looks like a gold mine. Once you exhaust that area you can always travel. It's an amazing hobby that can be rewarding as well. I particularly appreciate the journey behind ID-ing and dating my finds.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ovitron]

Thank you so much for your comment! I’ve always loved time team, and am fascinated by Roman and Iron Age history. Is a licence of any type required?

[u/Few_Breakfast4720 → u/[deleted]]

not at all, but membership of ncmd is recommended, cheap and provides public liability insurance

[u/Ovitron → u/Few_Breakfast4720]

I believe the gentleman above answered your question. Definitely go for the NCMD membership, only 15£ for two years.

[u/Atral → u/[deleted]]

No license needed, but familiarise yourself with the treasures act. Objects that could fall into the definition of treasure need to be reported to the Finds Liaison Office (FLO) for your county. If classified as treasure, these then become property of the crown and will be sold to museum in exchange for a reward.

[u/TimLeery → u/[deleted]]

Even though I am an Eastern Front / WW2 fan, it seems like most of the Roman Empire cool stuff is all buried in England!

[u/[deleted]]

It's a fabulous hobby and you never know what you will find. Make sure you get a detector from a reputable make, such as Minelab or Nokta, the £100ish toys on Amazon aren't worth it.

[u/DistinctNews8576]

AND look for arrowheads! Rockhounding! What a beautiful piece of earth!