A Beginner’s Guide to Metal Detecting – Your Thoughts

Two weeks ago Jon and Gabby set off on their first metal detecting mission on some land owned by a builder in the village of Pottespury, Northamptonshire. Armed with two metal detectors (the E-Trac and the X-Terra 705) and a vague notion of what they were doing, they set off to see what they could detect.

The response to the video has been great, and many people from the Joan Allen community on Facebook and Youtube have offered tips on how to grasp the art of metal detecting.

So if you’re a metal detecting newbie or want to take it up, here’s some useful tips to get you started:

 

Excavate out your signal

“One thing I would suggest you need to excavate out your signal with a little more care. Use your spade to remove the soil from the ground and your hands to find the item in the removed soil. If you bash the soil with spade you risk damaging or breaking the item you are looking for – I broke a rare nut silver penny doing exactly the same as you did in the vid….. Good hunting!”

Chris Keyworth, Facebook

 

Keep your detector coil close to the ground

“I’ve been searching for 36 years and found if you keep your detector coil as close to the ground as possible as you sweep and search you will easily lose 3-6 inches of detection depth if you are not focused – Good hunting.”

Mark Williams, Facebook

 

Take care of your search area

“Always remember to fill your holes & try to leave your search area as you found it as much as possible…..believe me, it can lead to more permissions by way of referrals as it has for me & many others!

The great thing about this hobby (from my point of view) is that it’s a total learning curve. Always something else to get to grips with in order to improve your performance/find rate, and loads of lovely research too!”

Phil Chapman, Facebook

 

Use your spade well

“When digging through grass, use the spade to cut a round plug that you can then pull back or take out. It makes it easier to fill the hole back in. Your find might be in the plug and not the hole.”

Ben Lovegrove, Facebook

 

Skim the ground

“You need a pin pointer probe – I see people swinging it sometimes 8 inches away above the stubble, so you are only getting a few inches depth, try and get the coil closest to the ground for deep penetration. Skimming the ground very close is the best way.”

grinder1234 – Youtube

 

Take a look at our beginner’s guide to metal detecting video below and feel free to share your tips and advice on how we can improve. Let us know what you think and comment below, on the Joan Allen Facebook page and on Youtube.

Metal Detecting – Fun for all the family

 

 

 

With half term this week, it’s now a better time than ever to go out metal detecting as a family.

Don’t let your kids sit inside all day playing FIFA on Xbox or Call of Duty on their PS3, get them out and about and a metal detector in their hands.

Metal Detecting is becoming more popular than ever with people of all ages, as it’s outdoors, educational, and a great hobby. It gets the kids outside and not sitting indoors sitting at a screen killing Russians or terrorists all day on Call of Duty.

With a range of children’s metal detectors, and prices starting from £115 – the same price as a Wii (£115) and cheaper than a PS3 (£189) and an Xbox 360 (£179) – your children can learn about history in a fun interactive way get them outdoors and detect as a family. We’re even offering 10% off all metal detectors on our Facebook store.

It’s got so popular that kids’ TV favourite The Hive has featured metal detecting on its show, urging children to take part and ditch the Game Boy and go out looking for treasure. Peppa Pig and Fireman Sam have also featured metal detecting where Sam introduces Sarah and James to his new metal detector, and they get hooked on looking for treasure; check out our Facebook page where we have the video!

 

 

For all the latest news, reviews and metal detecting tips for children (and adults) go to the Joan Allen website at www.joanallen.co.uk and like us on Facebook

A Beginners Guide: Our First Metal Detecting Mission…(Take 2)

So…Jon and I embarked on our first metal detecting mission on Tuesday 7th Feb with permission to detect on some land owned by a builder in the village of Pottespury, Northamptonshire. We had learnt our lesson after nearly being arrested and fined from last time!

Jon and I set out with all our gear (courtesy of the guys at Joan Allen Metal detectors); E-Trac and X-Terra 705 in hand, we were dead excited. We weren’t too sure what to expect given the dump of snow we’d had recently, but we had our warm weather gear on, wellies and gloves and we set off…

…I made the fatal mistake of not reading the instructions…again…and I had the E-Trac; big mistake. Jon had the X-Terra 705 which is easier to use as a beginner and more intuitive than the E-trac. I had the manual in the car but this is something you need to read before and not assume, like moi!

The land was bumpy and on a hill so you can imagine we weren’t too steady on our feet. It also transpired the land had lots of spoil on it. Jon and I got really excited when we had a strong detection, only to realise it was corrugated iron roof below the ground. That said we were having good fun and understanding more about the equipment and how it detects.

Lawrence, the builder whose land it was, knew a bit more than we did and explained about filling our holes back up, sectioning off areas and general advice on etiquette. One thing that struck us was this is such a great hobby for all the age ranges; old and young; Jon thought his kids would love it! You get to use great gadgets, get outdoors and hopefully…or eventually in our case, discover some history! I wish they did this in my History lessons when I was at school!

Being super cold and having not read the instructions properly, we decided to head in and ask the boys at Joan Allen Metal Detectors if we could pop down for some advice before trying again…They kindly obliged so we will be heading there to get clued up… we will naturally share their tips and advice in our next blog for all you beginners out there likes us.

If you have any tips or advice for us, please share your comments! We will grateful of any help…

P.S Check out our video of our attempt on Joan Allen’s’ YouTube channel

Our first mission

Our first metal detecting mission: 

I set out on a stroll accompanied by my friend Jonny (also new to metal detecting), E-TRAC and spade in hand. We got about 20 metres before we were stopped…”Excuse me, what are you doing”…we were asked…”metal detecting” we replied politely. We were met with a startled look. The penny dropped (no pun intended), we were on a British Heritage Site; Bradwell Abbey, Buckinghamshire. We had a small suspicion that they may not like it, we had no idea it was illegal and we could be fined!

Lesson 1; get permission. Ask land owners if you can detect and dig on their land; don’t just assume and if they say no, move on.

The gentleman who stopped us was really very nice, he explained to us that metal detecting on a Heritage site is illegal and we could be fined and arrested. He wasn’t being funny, he explained to us that the law was trying to ensure we look after our heritage and history and not slowly erode it. Apparently permission can be applied for via the Government and various bodies, and there would need to be an archaeologist there from what i could gather;  we decided to stop and do our research…

I think we were so excited by the idea of hunting for treasure, so to speak, we didn’t appreciate or even acknowledge the historical aspect of what we were embarking on. Lesson 2: this is not like an easter egg hunt in your back garden; be respectful.

The problem here was we were on a Heritage site. Private land is different, as is public land. You must however always ask permission of the landowner and a good metal detectorist will always declare and record their find so I’ve been told. Some landowners may let you keep what you have found, but if you have not asked the landowner, not only are you trespassing, what you find belongs to them and you are also reflecting badly on the hobby of metal detecting.

I’m off to do some more research, read some magazines; I’m told The Searcher and Treasure Hunting are good and learn to walk before I can run. I’m Excited…till next time…happy hunting!

Discovering metal detecting…a novice’s view

Discovering metal-detecting…. By Gabby

…When someone says to me ‘metal detecting’ I immediately think of a treasure hunt, anoraks  and eccentrics. Then I hear a member of one of the biggest rock and roll bands in the world is a    metal detecting enthusiast and thinks it is “probably the best and most enjoyable way of learning about History.”

If it’s good enough for Rolling Stones bassist, Bill Wyman then maybe I am totally mislead and uninformed…let’s find out…

My New Toy: Minelab E-TRAC

Courtesy of Joan Allen Metal Detectors, I have myself a neatly packed box with a Minelab E-TRAC (which I am told is Minelab’s most technologically advanced detector, setting the industry benchmark) waiting to be unpacked. I am actually a bit nervous as it all looks a bit complicated…

…In the box there was a whole array of parts; coils, shafts, control boxes, headphones…an instruction manual (phew)! So I got to work in assembling this beast and it was surprisingly easy. I found myself more excited at every part that connected and you can’t help but notice the real quality and strength of the product; impressive. I was relieved the instruction manual was actually an instruction manual and not a maze like those flat pack furniture ones; it was clear and concise with diagrams illustrating each step. I was beginning to think this metal detecting lark could be good fun…

The instruction manual had all sorts of great information in it. Despite having this rather skeptic view about metal detecting, i realised i didn’t actually know much about it at all, how it worked, the technology; so i decided to do a bit of reading…

How Metal Detectors Work: 

I read that metal detectors create an electromagnetic field around the coil (the round flat bit that hovers over the surface) which penetrates the ground. Metal is conductive so it causes a change in the electromagnetic field, the detector then senses a change and sends a signal to the control box to alert whoever is operating it.

Metal detectors can determine the size, shape and composition of the metallic objects beneath the coil and the larger the object the easier it is to detect; pretty cool when you think about it.

I guess all is left to do now is to give it a go…

Joan Allen detectors, A Dummy’s guide to the metal detector (by a dummy)

Introduction

Joan Allen have given us a couple of Metal detectors to test. We’re expecting the unexpected, mud, history and maybe a little bit of an exciting adventure!

Discovering metal-detecting… (Jonny)

 

I begin this blog with a frank admission. I know absolutely nothing about metal detecting. The extent of my knowledge goes as far as, people walk around in fields and hunt for treasure. So what am I doing writing a blog for Joan Allen, a leading name in the UK metal detecting world?

 

It’s simple really, they have given me a Minelab X-terra 705 and over the coming weeks I will be recording my experiences right from the start as a novice to the hobby until, hopefully, I’m hooked. There will be live twitter (we will mark our blog tweets with “News update”) and Flickr updates, recording our progress out in the field as well as reports on our success’s and, inevitably, our failures! We will also aim to inform the world on how to best go about getting permission to detect on privately owned land and what to do if you find something special…

 

Opening the X-Terra 705 

 

So having received my shiny new box complete with Joan allen finds pouch and rechargeable batteries, I found myself brimming with excitement. The thought of wondering across one of the UK’s premier medieval heritage sites (Bradwell abbey, Milton Keynes) with a metal detector is actually a very appealing one even in this bitterly cold weather. Opening the X-terra you are confronted by several different parts. No doubt a familiar sight for veterans of the hobby but for me a little daunting, it needn’t have been. The manual explained things brilliantly and in under 10 minutes, grinning constantly, I had a fully assembled Minelab Metal detector.

 

Picking it up it was lighter and more mobile than I thought it would be, lending itself to a potentially long day of detecting. The manual gives the advice to test the different settings on the X-Terra with familiar pieces of metal like coins, foil or tin cans.

 

Let the adventure begin!