Description
Some guns define their era. Others are built for an era that never came. The Smith & Wesson Model 3566 Performance Center (Serial XPX0020) belongs firmly to the latter—a one-off vision of what could have been if competition rules hadn’t changed mid-stride.
Born out of the Smith & Wesson Performance Center, this semi-automatic pistol was designed around the ambitious .356 TSW cartridge—a round engineered to deliver major-power performance with less recoil than .45 ACP. It was efficient, accurate, and fast. For a brief moment, it looked like the future of IPSC competition. And then, almost overnight, the rulebook changed. The .40-caliber minimum for “major” scoring rendered the .356 obsolete.
But this pistol didn’t fade—it evolved into myth.
The Model 3566 XPX0020 showcases everything the Performance Center stood for: ingenuity, precision, and unapologetic experimentation. The lightened slide, the integrated muzzle brake, and the clean, sight-free top profile reveal a purebred race gun—streamlined for speed. The checkered front and backstraps provide a locked-in grip, while the flared magwell, frame-mounted safety, and gas-pedal thumb rest speak to its competitive DNA. Every feature feels intentional, like a blueprint for a future that never materialized.
Mounted to the side is a Tasco ProPoint red-dot optic, not as an afterthought, but as part of the design. It’s the finishing touch on a gun that wasn’t made to sit behind glass—it was made to win stages.
Of course, the cartridge may have faded, but the craftsmanship and the story remain. In many ways, this pistol captures a turning point in competition shooting—a moment when innovation was faster than the rules that governed it.
For collectors who appreciate singular pieces with real narrative weight, the S&W 3566 XPX0020 is more than a rarity. It’s an artifact from the edge of innovation—a firearm that dared to rewrite the rules before the rules rewrote it.
