About Field Finds Guide
About Field Finds Guide
Field Finds Guide is an independent resource for anyone in the UK who has picked up a detector — or is about to — and needs the rules before they need a review of the gear. Search for most of this and you’ll land on a specialist retailer selling detectors, a forum thread, or the National Council for Metal Detecting’s own guidance sitting as one voice among many. Nobody neutral sits between you and the actual permission, reporting, and finds-handling decisions. No fabricated dig stories, no overblown promises — just straightforward guides covering what people actually need to know before they ask a landowner or put a coil on the ground.
Most “beginner detector” content is written to sell a machine. The UK’s access law, the Treasure Act 1996, and the Portable Antiquities Scheme recording norm are a different job. That gap between a shopping wall and the can-I / am-I-allowed-to / what-do-I-do-with-it layer is exactly why Field Finds Guide exists.
Who We Are
Field Finds Guide is written and researched by the Field Finds Guide Team — an editorial team, not a single self-styled expert with a fabricated backstory. We research the statute, official guidance, and aggregated detectorist and forum evidence, and reason from mechanism rather than a retailer’s stock pitch. Where a verdict draws on someone else’s experience, we attribute it — we don’t invent our own.
Our approach:
- Research-led, not shop-led — we’re not owned by or affiliated with any detector retailer
- UK-specific context — access law, Treasure Act reporting, Finds Liaison Officers, PAS
- Honest trade-offs — including when a club is worth the fee, and when it isn’t
- No fabricated statistics or invented detecting/finding/reporting stories — where we cite a figure, we can point to where it came from
Why Trust This Site?
- Independence: Accessory and kit recommendations are earned, not pushed — we’re not selling our own detectors.
- Research: Verdicts are grounded in checkable legal and practical mechanisms, aggregated hobbyist feedback, or named official sources — not invented statistics.
- Transparency: Affiliate links are clearly marked. Where we don’t know something, we say so rather than guess.
- Updates: Guides are reviewed and updated as new information becomes available.
Treasure Act and reporting content is general guidance, not legal advice. For a specific find, contact your local Finds Liaison Officer or the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
Contact
Questions, corrections, or spotted something wrong? Email hello@fieldfindsguide.co.uk .