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Metal detector

(6 Posts)
Riverwalk Sat 18-Oct-14 12:52:47

My soon to be 9 year-old grandson would like a metal detector for his birthday.

I'm just checking out Amazon and to be honest don't know where to start ... they were listed next to garden shovels! And the reviews are somewhat mixed.

Obviously I would love him to unearth a Viking hoard, or the equivalent of whatever they have in Somerset, but I don't want to waste money on rubbish.

Has anyone any experience of such things?

Ruby6918 Sat 18-Oct-14 13:27:09

yes ive had quite a few they r rubbish my son went through this and also microscope too and to be honest i got totsly fed up going out with him and we found nothing or it ran out of battery, i ended up getting him chemistry sets and things that were scientific fr home use, rock crystals, bath bombs, all that its far better

Riverwalk Sat 18-Oct-14 17:08:04

That's what I feared Ruby - a waste of money!

One of the reviews said that theirs detected a ring but when the ring was covered with a t-shirt the detector was silent. I'm assuming those costing hundreds of pounds are more efficient but the cheaper ones are basically toys.

I'll have to have a re-think. confused

PRINTMISS Sat 18-Oct-14 17:13:02

We bought my grandson a fairly cheap model, just to keep him happy - he was about six. We lived in a house built in the grounds of an old house, and he was happily using his metal detector, when a 'find' was indicated. With much enthusiasm he and his dad started digging, only to find a rather large piece of old piping from the old house, a bit disappointing, but kept a rather over-active young man busy for a couple of hours.

Riverwalk Sat 18-Oct-14 17:28:10

At least it detected something Printmiss - that's all I want! grin

Do you remember the model/make?

PRINTMISS Sun 26-Oct-14 16:21:11

Sorry, missed this Riverwalk. No idea at all, it was really just a toy. Our next door neighbour used to do a lot of detecting, but seems to have given up recently. She says herself she never discovered anything very exciting.