Omega 8000 or Delta 4000, light enough for a 10-year old to swing?

[imi_wakaranai]

Hello all, I am about to take the plunge on an Omega 8000 after taking a few years off from the hobby. One of the main reasons that I am excited to get back into it is that I want to experience this hobby with my son since he is a little older now. He is average height, but on the skinny side. If he really enjoys going out with me and wants to spend more time with the detector, then I will probably by him his own Delta 4000 or Fisher F2. Do you think a kid could operate one of these detectors with moderate supervision? The Delta 4000 and the F2 seem to be about as simple as they get, but I am just wondering if he would be able to swing one of these without tiring too easily. Thanks for your replies.

 

[Monte]

Going backwards let me start off with "bonding." Just remember that we can't give up everything we'd like to do in life just to concentrate on "bonding" with a child or grand-child or friend. Now, don't take me wrong because I certainly believe we should do all we can to try and bond or get close to our children, but I can assure you that too often there are many outside factors that can influence how a child/children grow up that we just can't seem to control. Also, as exciting and fun this great outdoor sport is, it just doesn't seem to catch the interest of all kids.

To reflect, I have been an avid detectorists since I built my first "metal/mineral locator" from a kit when I was in high school. Six-and-a-half years later my ex-wife and I had our first child, my oldest son, Monte Jr. We had 6 children, and my current wife had 3. Between our 9 children we now have 19 grand-children, and they range in age from 6 months to about 17 or 18 years old. Of my 6 they ALL had a taste of the hobby and got to experience a little detecting on a few occasions. I had 4 boys and 2 girls (B-G-B-G-B-B) and Monte Jr. and his sister were both equipped with a metal detector when he was about 5. It was not a light unit, but he managed to figure it out for some simple hunting with me.

My second daughter enjoyed the opportunities to go out hunting with me while her older sister and my 2nd son didn't show much interest. There was a local newspaper article about me that came out in early December, 1982, and at that time they did the writ-up the second daughter was only 4

 

[imi_wakaranai]

Monte,

Thanks for taking the time to post this. I do believe that my son will take to the hobby, whether he operates his own machine or just follows me around. Through the years, I have collected Norfed sivers and US Liberty silvers. My son loves to look through the collection and loves the sheen of the silver. I even gave him a few pieces for his own collection, which he stores in a special treasure box and doesn't allow anyone access. It is not actually a treasure box. It is a drawer in our entertainment center that he has locked with a rope and some sophisticated knots. A few years ago when he would go out with me I would let him keep the clad, and he is interested in that now because he thinks he can keep all of the clad. I am not sure how I am going to handle this part of our detecting just yet because I plan on finding quite a lot. For the silver that we find, I am thinking that we will start a collection that will be both his and mine. I enjoyed reading this post asa well as all of the other thought-provoking posts you provide.

Take care,

Jason

 

[Monte]

My oldest son lives about an hours drive south of me and if I wouldn't have taken the fall off the ladder in June I am sure we would have spent some summertime detecting by now. The other lives in a small town in Utah so I'll get to hunt with him when I take vacation, as soon as I finish mending.

I guess it might vary depending upon the amount of "clad" you find as to how much you let the kids have. I never did let them have the money I found, old or new. If it was the girls with me, they got all the costume jewelry and such, while the boys got all the toy cars and similar items. Rather than sharing the clad change I would make it a point to pick a place to go grab some breakfast or lunch or an ice cream treat when we had been out for a while. Back when they were younger kids and I was also younger and able to hunt more, it seems there was also a lot of 'flash money' to be found and I often averaged $800-$1200 a year in modern stuff. Until this past couple of months I am usually on track to come sort of close to that, or at least