Metal detecting is a great hobby, and to be honest then it doesn’t take that much to get you started with it. If you grab some metal detecting books and a basic metal detector, then as soon as you finish reading the books you can be ready to get out there and get detecting. Experience will then be the best way to learn to differentiate between the sounds of your detector, and how to dig out artifacts etc. Just make sure that you get a book on how to get permission from people to detect on their land, because that is an important part of the hobby.