John Martz Walther P38 .45 ACP / .38 Super Prototype Set

John Martz built his reputation taking machines like the Luger and the P38 apart and putting them back together in calibers their designers never imagined. This set is one of his strangest and most ambitious efforts. Two of them, really. A complete Walther P38 reworked for .45 ACP, paired with a second Martz-signed top end chambered in .38 Super. The brass plaque inside the case dates the work to September 20, 1995, and calls it exactly what it is: a prototype.

Look at the slide of the pistol and you read Martz .45acp, hand engraved in his cursive script alongside the Walther banner and the P38 designation. The companion slide reads Martz .38 Super in the same hand. Both wear deep, even bluing with a glassy polish, and the muzzle ends carry the fire blue Martz liked to leave on his small parts. The barrels run noticeably long, well past standard P38 length. That extra length gave Martz the mass and dwell he needed to tame cartridges far hotter than the 9mm the locking system was built around.

The frame is marked Lincoln, CA, U.S.A. and carries his JVM initials near the trigger. Warm checkered walnut target grips replace the original wartime panels, and the polished bright controls play against the dark slide. A spare magazine sits in the case beside the conversion unit.

The presentation case is its own piece of work. Hardwood with dovetailed corners, lined in bright blue, fitted with brass hinges and a second plaque crediting the case to Robert Edwards. Each component drops into its own cut recess.

Martz passed in 2012, and his prototype work almost never reaches the open market. If you collect the man's guns, or you collect oddball P38 conversions, this is the kind of set you build a collection around rather than add to one.