A Baby Luger & Martz P.38 Explored

I got two Babies! Post World II Fantasy Guns

Hey guys and welcome to another walk-in Wednesday. This one is a little bit unusual because last week on a Wednesday I got two guns in, two babies. Now these are not typically what I show you because these are what they call fantasy guns. I actually put them on the website already. You can see both guns are on the website and they won't last very long, so I thought I'd show them to you even though they're not World War II original guns, these are Post-World War II fantasy guns. So let me tell you a little bit about these guns before they go out the door. 

The Baby Luger Replica

So the first one I'll talk about is the Baby Luger. This one is a little more real, in terms of a gun that was actually issued. A Baby Luger was issued. They think there is only about a half a dozen ever made and I think there's only two real ones that exist. They were made by the DWM Factory, so it is Pre-World War II and they were signed by George Luger; this was his initials on the back. So the original Baby Luger, they only made a few. I only know of two and they're probably worth anywhere from a quarter of a million to a half a million dollars. So this gun is a replica of that original gun. It comes in 9mm and it's not just a Luger with the barrel cut off, the whole thing has been shrunk down to make it a baby. I think the inspiration for this...I already did a video on a Baby Nambu, this gun right here. 

Was the Baby Nambu an inspiration for the Baby Luger?

This is an exact replica of a Papa Nambu but just shrunk down. I shouldn't use the word replica; this is an original gun from Pre-World War II built in Tokyo. So this is the Baby Nambu. Some of you are familiar with it and I did a video on Baby Nambus, you can take a look at that. But these were extremely popular with the officers and may have inspired, hey let's try a Baby Luger. They probably tried it out thinking somebody will like these and they'll become popular but for whatever reason they never went into full production. So where did this one come from? 

The Manufacturer of the Fantasy Gun - Krausewerkes

A guy named Michael Krause, lives out in California, he runs a company called Krausewerkes. He made a hundred of these. Basically they are from original Luger parts. Here's the size of a regular Luger compared to the Baby Luger. So Michael Krause took an original Luger, probably less quality, I don't think he took a pristine gun and turned it into this. But I'm going to assume he took a gun that maybe had some issues, some broken parts or some pitting and he used an original gun and shrunk it down so that you can see the mag capacity is less, the barrel is shorter, it is in 9mm but the frame is almost identical. So this is made from an original German Luger but I call it a fantasy gun because it is a replica of a very expensive gun. Now I already mentioned he made a hundred of these and he sold these originally at $12,500 a piece, I believe they sold out. That's a huge amount of money for a fantasy gun.

Just my Opinion!

Now on both of these guns I'm going to tell you in my opinion. I have mixed feelings about these because I think this is adorable and it would be so much fun to own and shoot but if I'm going to spend that kind of money I want an original World War II gun. I'm sure I'm going to hear a lot of comments from most of you who want to weigh in on this topic but obviously somebody's buying this because I believe he sold all one-hundred of them.

Great Workmanship on Fantasy Gun 1

The grips are very close to original but these were made up special because remember the frame is smaller. And look at this cute little Luger magazine, looks just like an original one, you can see the difference but it looks almost… this is a lot of cleaner. Beautiful quality workmanship, I'm just amazed by what people can do. I'm not handy at all. I mean I can cut my grass but other than that I'm not handy at all.

So I don't even know how you do something like this but take a look at this holster. Again it looks like an original World War II holster which just has been cut down. You can see the spare magazine, it's a little Baby Luger mag and cute little holster, no tool by the way. This is a police-style holster by the way, the gun is military marked I should show you that. Take a look at that, that's Imperial World War I army acceptance proofs, but this holster is a police-style, not a big deal but you can see how adorable this little kit is. So we have it for sale on the website probably by the time you watch this it'll already be gone but because they're so rare I just wanted to show it to you. 

The Second Fantasy Gun by John Martz

Now let's take a look at the second fantasy gun. So my second baby, this was made by John Martz. Now unlike the DWM, he left all the original markings, he had to replicate the George Luger initials on the back. John Martz made all kinds of fantasy guns. He actually was in World War II, he was in the US Navy. When the war ended and he went back home he became a machinist and later a gunsmith so he must have been very talented. He made a lot of special order fantasy Luger's and P.38s.

A Baby Luger, .45 caliber plus Replicas

He actually did make a Baby Luger, he made a .45 caliber Luger. By the way, the .45 caliber Luger there's only one known and he made replicas of that .45 caliber Luger. This is a Baby P.38 and it comes also in .45 caliber. So you get two fantasies, one they never made a baby P.38. Unlike the Luger, they never made a baby P.38 and you have probably seen P.38s with a shorter barrel. Those are real, they're rare but they're real.

This is not the same thing as just shortening the barrel because it's a whole different caliber but also if you compare it you can see that the whole frame has been shortened, the entire gun, just like the baby Luger. This is from an original P.38, the barrel is much wider because it's in .45 caliber, the frame has been stripped of any Waffen proofs and you can see the original byf 44 markings and the original serial number but he put his name all over this. He basically has Lincoln California [inaudible 07:14], he put his name on the front, he put his initials here, if you take the grips off his initials are there, his initials are inside, his initials are on the magazine. All that is to say there's absolutely no attempt to fool the public.

These marks could Trick People

If you were an unscrupulous collector this wouldn't fool a lot of people but the markings on this are all very much like an original. To me it's obviously refinished but again if you don't do this very much and you said to somebody look this is a rare variation, a Baby Luger, if you haven't been doing this very long you might think yeah, looks good to me. And if you look it up they did make them and there's only two known. Holy smokes, I think I'll buy it. As opposed to this where...and I'm not insinuating, please hear me, I'm not insinuating that Krause was trying to fool anybody, he wasn't. He just wanted to make something very close to the real thing.

Martz is Everywhere!

But in this case, he went out of his way to make sure every part was marked with his name. John Martz is all over this gun, so you could never sell this gun as an original, plus bear in mind they never made this gun for the German army. There are no babies, there are no .45 calibers, so a complete fantasy gun.

Special order Fantasy Guns

He would make special order fantasy guns. So I know he made long barrel p.38s, he made Luger's, he made Baby Luger's, he made .45 caliber, I think he made .22 calibers, he made hundreds of different kinds of guns, all fantasy guns special order. So you'd call him up and say I'd like to have a Luger in...in fact engraved, he would make engraved Lugers.

Are the Manufacturers still Alive?

So he had quite a career; he passed away recently. So after he passed away some of his artwork I'll call it, actually went up in value which is pretty common. Michael Krause, by the way, is still alive and living in California and he does have a website if you want to check that out.

A Letter Signed by Martz

But this gun in particular it came with a letter from John Martz and it's signed by him and as you can see this is number 56 out of 70 made. He didn't do the bluing himself he sent it out to have it blued. Has a 3 1/2 inch barrel and it comes in .45 caliber. He recommends Winchester ammo, I'm sure that's because it's quality ammo and will feed properly. If you take a look at the grips they're phenomenal.

This seems wider to me in the back which it would have to be because if you look at the magazine it's an adorable little baby magazine and it looks like he took two magazines and very skilfully welded them together. Let's just compare it to a standard P.38, you can see .45 caliber you can see how the width of it is quite a bit bigger. 

Great Artwork but I’ll always choose a World War II Gun

So in conclusion I'm really excited to have these come through my doors. It is something I'm proud to present to the public but as I said before I'm a little bit ambivalent. They're just adorable guns but to me they're not a piece of history, other than modern history of what gunsmiths can do. Phenomenal work, wonderful artwork but if I had to choose to own this one, this one, or an original Baby Nambu, I will always go with an original World War II bring back gun. And that's generally what we feature on our channel.

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