POTD: The Martz P.38 Carbine – The Gun Walther Never Built

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a gun Walther never built, made by a man who spent forty years building guns nobody built. John V. Martz served in the Navy during the war, put in twenty five years as an aircraft sheet metal man at McClellan Air Force Base, and started messing with Lugers and P.38s as a hobby in 1968. It stopped being a hobby.

Out of a home shop in California he became the name in custom Luger work: Baby Lugers shrunk down all over, 45 ACP conversions, and the Martz Safe Toggle Release, which more than one writer has called the fix Georg Luger should have thought of himself. He also had a rule I respect. He only cut up worn or mismatched guns and would not touch a collectible one.

This is his run at the DWM 1902 Luger Carbine, done on a P.38 instead. Sixteen inch barrel, walnut forend, detachable shoulder stock, and an Artillery pattern tangent sight graduated out to 800 meters, which on a 9mm is pure theater and I love it for that.

There is a real wrinkle in this build. The P.38 is short recoil, so the barrel travels back about half an inch on every shot. Stretch that barrel out to sixteen inches and you are throwing a lot more weight back and forth. Getting it to run took actual work.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Walther/Martz ‘ac 45’ P.38 Pistol-Carbine Pistol with Case.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/529/walthermartz-ac-45-p38-pistolcarbine-pistol-with-case. Accessed 10 Sept. 2026.

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