Garrett Vortex Revisited

[Pyriteboy]

Hello All,

I am asking for any help from those of you that use or have used the Vortex with the latest software.

Being an old school PI guy for beach ring and desert nugget hunting, I have no experience with SMF machines. That being said, I do try to keep up with all the threads on the various detectors, in addition to reading some of the manuals. I'll get one someday.....adapt or die, right?

Here is the the reason for starting this thread- my best friend's wife wants to start beach detecting here in Southern California, LA County to be exact. I am looking at the Vortex, based on price, ease of use for a first-timer and performance. Tossed out are the D2, Manticore and Legend. I know there are a few other detectors at the Vortex price point, but that would be in a separate thread.

I think there is no question the Vortex beach circuit will do a credible job in our mineralized wet/shallow water. What I'm asking the community is this: will the Vortex be effective in the beach dry sand?

Thank you,

-Jerry

[Jeff McClendon]

First, don't overlook the Minelab Xterra Elite and the Nokta Triple Score.

Hopefully Bill Paxton will chime in here soon since he is a Vortex tester, owner and user in So Cal also and he has written a good review of the Vortex for the latest edition of GPAA's prospecting magazine.

I have never used the Vortex VX9 on a salt and black sand mineralized saltwater beach. I have heard good reports about the Vortex Multi Salt mode. From my testing back at the beginning of the release, Multi Salt was way more ready for prime time than the VX9 Multi land based mode.

I got to borrow a VX9 with 9.09 software on it two weeks ago and spent about 6 hours testing it and hunting with it at sites with moderate to high iron mineralization using the stock 11.5" X 7" coil. The Multi program was vastly improved over the software version I had used last which was v2.05. However, the iron magnetite mineralization here was causing issues for low and mid conductor non ferrous targets including way too many iron responses and up averaging of target IDs on 4" or deeper US nickels, US zinc pennies, a wide variety of pull tabs and the gold rings that I currently have for testing. Basically a 4" deep US nickel would have 75% iron responses and 25% correct target IDs and non ferrous responses. Deeper that 4" here, nickels, pull tabs, gold rings etc. have mostly iron responses along with a few higher tone higher conductor audio responses and mid 70s to mid 90s target IDs as if they were silver coin, jewelry or US dime, copper penny or quarter targets

I sent that information to Garrett along with a short video showing the issue which they sent on to the Vortex engineering team.

[Bill (S. CA)]

First of all, my thanks to Jeff for his kind words. Also, Jeff is right, the Xterra Elite and Triple Score are very good choices.

If i read your question correctly, you are asking how a Vortex would perform in dry sand.  If you are a dry sand hunter any VLF will work just fine.  It is in the wet sand that multi is king.  A Vortex would certainly cover both wet and dry sand, but so would an Xterra Elite and a Triple Score.

I happen to like the Vortex for its versatility and display/interface.  It is a good performer inland and a very underrated performer at saltwater beaches.  Version 9.09, which Jeff mentioned, is currently being tested by Garrett.  I would anticipate it might be out sometime this month.  Garrett, like other manufacturers, has learned that it is better to take time on updates instead of issuing them one right after another.  I had the opportunity to try 9.09 this past weekend and target response is greatly enhanced.  Also, the target lag that had cropped up on the last update no longer exists.  I did not notice the issue that Jeff mentioned about the iron responses, but the dirt I hunt here in Los Angeles is very neutral.

 

[Pyriteboy]

17 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

17 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

First, don't overlook the Minelab Xterra Elite and the Nokta Triple Score.

Hopefully Bill Paxton will chime in here soon since he is a Vortex tester, owner and user in So Cal also and he has written a good review of the Vortex for the latest edition of GPAA's prospecting magazine.

I have never used the Vortex VX9 on a salt and black sand mineralized saltwater beach. I have heard good reports about the Vortex Multi Salt mode. From my testing back at the beginning of the release, Multi Salt was way more ready for prime time than the VX9 Multi land based mode.

I got to borrow a VX9 with 9.09 software on it two weeks ago and spent about 6 hours testing it and hunting with it at sites with moderate to high iron mineralization using the stock 11.5" X 7" coil. The Multi program was vastly improved over the software version I had used last which was v2.05. However, the iron magnetite mineralization here was causing issues for low and mid conductor non ferrous targets including way too many iron responses and up averaging of target IDs on 4" or deeper US nickels, US zinc pennies, a wide variety of pull tabs and the gold rings that I currently have for testing. Basically a 4" deep US nickel would have 75% iron responses and 25% correct target IDs and non ferrous responses. Deeper that 4" here, nickels, pull tabs, gold rings etc. have mostly iron responses along with a few higher tone higher conductor audio responses and mid 70s to mid 90s target IDs as if they were silver coin, jewelry or US dime, copper penny or quarter targets

I sent that information to Garrett along with a short video showing the issue which they sent on to the Vortex engineering team.

 

14 hours ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

First of all, my thanks to Jeff for his kind words. Also, Jeff is right, the Xterra Elite and Triple Score are very good choices.

If i read your question correctly, you are asking how a Vortex would perform in dry sand.  If you are a dry sand hunter any VLF will work just fine.  It is in the wet sand that multi is king.  A Vortex would certainly cover both wet and dry sand, but so would an Xterra Elite and a Triple Score.

I happen to like the Vortex for its versatility and display/interface.  It is a good performer inland and a very underrated performer at saltwater beaches.  Version 9.09, which Jeff mentioned, is currently being tested by Garrett.  I would anticipate it might be out sometime this month.  Garrett, like other manufacturers, has learned that it is better to take time on updates instead of issuing them one right after another.  I had the opportunity to try 9.09 this past weekend and target response is greatly enhanced.  Also, the target lag that had cropped up on the last update no longer exists.  I did not notice the issue that Jeff mentioned about the iron responses, but the dirt I hunt here in Los Angeles is very neutral.

 

 

Hi Jeff,

Thank you for chiming in here. Yes, you do have some nasty ground there in Colorado. And yes, the Triple Score and Xterra Elite would be the other 2 choices I could make here for Debbie. The reason for asking about the dry sand is that most folks just starting out will stick to detecting the dry as they learn their craft. Also, I have to recommend a useful, effective machine suitable for the conditions here that can be resold if and when she decides detecting is not for her (most likely to me?).

Thank you, 

-Jerry

 

Hi Bill,

Thank you restating you feelings about the Vortex in the wet and the dry. I did not realize Garrett was working on another update, but that is a good thing. I am confident, like you said, that the Vortex display is easy to navigate, which helps a newbie with the learning curve. Need to do a little more work looking at the Xterra Elite and Triple Score. 

Thank you,

-Jerry

 

[phrunt]

The Vortex is absolutely simple to use so for a beginner or just someone that doesn't do a lot of detecting it's ideal as there isn't much they need to do at all to get up and running, it's very simple and they could perhaps make it even simpler in the future adding text to the icons saying what they do in the menu system, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened, plenty of screen space available to do so.  If they do that, it would be brilliant, most detectors can't as they have tightly packed screens with no space but the Vortex screen has plenty of space to spare.

Dry sand for me was absolutely no problem and I was able to pull targets at good depth, wet sand also no issues at it, ran nice and stable too.  It's a well-built detector also and I don't anticipate any quality problems with the build of it we so often see on detectors.

I like Garrett is actively working on improving it with firmware updates, I can't wait to try out the pending 9.09 

[The Lama]

I'm a bit of a Garrett fanboy just to let you know but i think an Apex or Vortex in multi salt is as good  as anything in the ocean or wet sand and i mean anything,on the dry sand i think some older single freq are a little better except maybe where you are i detected there once and i think a Garrett ground balances around 96 on some areas where there was pretty heavy black sand which is one of the few places i run mf otherwise i always run multi salt it's calmer on micro foil

[Chase Goldman]

On 8/6/2025 at 6:51 PM, Bill (S. CA) said:

Version 9.09, which Jeff mentioned, is currently being tested by Garrett.  I would anticipate it might be out sometime this month.  Garrett, like other manufacturers, has learned that it is better to take time on updates instead of issuing them one right after another.  I had the opportunity to try 9.09 this past weekend and target response is greatly enhanced. 

Version 9.09 has been available for D/L since May (I have it on my machine).  Is there something newer than that on its way, Bill?

[phrunt]

oh yea, I thought that was 9.08, so there must be a newer than 9.09 coming? 

[DIG5050]

About 3 weeks ago, I heard from an inside person at Garrett that a new update (9.10)? Is coming, and they are tweaking the Ripper coil. We’ll see what it brings.