I have only been detecting a few times so I have had no really bad experiences. But two frustrating things have happened to me. One, in north Alabama, near Athens, I took a buddy to a Civil War camp site that had taken about two years of research and hours of driving and studying maps to find and pin point. Well within minutes of getting out of the vehicle he found a minie ball. All I found was what appeared to be a cobbler's station, a mass of small heel nails and a heel iron.
Another time a couple of years ago I drove to up and found the site of Ebenezer Church where Gen Forrest ambushed Gen Wilson in 1865, and in which area they fought for a day or two. It is a spot where two roads going towards Selma converge forming a "Y". Anyway, a family has seven acres of land right in the middle of that "Y". I got permission to hunt it. We went during the summer. I was in my late forties, overweight, it was nigh onto 105*, 95% humidity. Gosh it was hot and humid! Anyway, within minutes my buddy found a fired yankee Spencer bullet.? After looking for a few hours, fighting insects, yellow jackets, bushes and scrub growth, I finally went and layed down in the shade next to my truck, soaked with sweat and exausted. All I had found were old nails, pieces of old wire, and a modern ballpeen hammer. I still have that hammer. I also found some big piece of iron shaped funny. I think it was some sort of plow blade.
Anyway, although I would never dig up a grave, being too superstitious for one thing and believing in respecting the dead, I did try detecting around the graves of some union dead there. In the book "Yankee Blitzkrieg", a book about Wilson's Raid into the heart of Alabama, in which were excerpts from diaries, etc, it said that some yankees killed in the battle were interred in the cemetery by the church (it is no longer there, removed later and rebuilt down on the main road to Selma) amongst a cedar grove. Now the cemetery is still there and still in use. At one end are a few huge cedar trees. I went and looked and sho' nuff, although there are no individual grave markers, there is a big nice granite marker saying that union dead kiled in the battle were buried at that spot. I found it ironic that a marker for union dead, foreign invaders to our country, was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and not one marker or grave anywhere I know of around there for our own Confederate dead who died defending our country. I did speak to one local who said that there were several rows of what he thinks are unmarked Confederate graves, sunken in, on his property (He did not even want to talk about my going there).
But figuring that the union soldiers were probably hastily thrown in shallow holes and covered up, and thinking that perhaps the growing cedar trees and their roots might have carried some buttons or something closer to the surface, I tried DTing around them. All I found was some old square type nails. Perhaps they were put in coffins and those nails were from them? If I had've had a MD that would go a bit deeper than mine perhaps a button or something would have shown up! Who knows?
Just thought y'all would find the above interesting.
Take care,
Pistolero
Millbrook, Al..
:P Whats your worst experience not detecting? dont even get me started 
. It's too bad a few ruin it for many.
Living in southeast Arizona and disturbing a hive of bees is a HUGE no no. All the bees around here are killer bees. Luckily, I am a fast runner and didn't manage to get stung one time! But talk about getting the adrenalin flowing!!! 
