Dave Fisher took the same approach to his wild turkey "grand slam" that he takes with every hunt -- slow and easy.

Fisher, of Fayette County's Smithfield, recently killed an Osceola gobbler in Florida, completing a somewhat casual quest for the four subspecies of wild turkey that inhabit the U.S. And it took him 39 years to do it.

"I never set out to do a grand slam," said Fisher. "That's not my approach to the outdoors -- the record thing, I mean. The opportunities to hunt different places just presented themselves."

Fisher is less known in the turkey universe than as the prolific producer of books and videos about rabbit hunting. He also trains hunting beagles that attract buyers from across the country.

Beginning in 1969 with a hunt that Fisher admits qualified him as truant from Uniontown High School, he took several Eastern gobblers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York, before tagging a Merriam's turkey in New Mexico. Merriam's is distinguished from other subspecies by white plumage on the back and tail.

"In 1977, I applied for a permit on the NRA's land near Raton, New Mexico," Fisher said. "They wanted a half-dozen hunters to check the place out. It was beautiful country and the gobbler I killed was colored with white, and he looked like he belonged there in the Ponderosa pine forest and light, sandy soil."

Twelve years later, Fisher collected a Rio Grande gobbler with a double beard in Oklahoma. Rio Grande turkeys live in more open country than the other varieties, have proportionally longer legs, coppery plumage and display buff-colored feathers on the rump and tail. The trip resulted from his volunteer work for the National Wild Turkey Federation.

"On the opening morning I was on a mesa overlooking a canyon with smaller gullies flowing in, and cottonwood timber all along the drainage," he said. "Just before light an owl hooted somewhere, then the gobbling started all up and down the canyon and in every gully. The gobbling seemed to move like falling dominoes. It is still one of the most fabulous moments I've ever known outdoors."

This spring, Fisher engaged a Florida guide with knowledge of the swamps and hummocks, home of the darker, smaller Osceola turkey, named for a Seminole chief.

"We set up near a lake, with palmetto and pine all around. The moonlight was like midday," Fisher said. "Osceolas are known to be call shy, but we heard gobbling and eventually a couple of hens came in."

Fisher and the guide employed sparse calling at low volume and finally enticed the gobbler into range.

"I saw him craning his neck and looking right toward us," he said. "He was a little farther than I normally shoot but I knew I could kill him. When I shot he just folded. It was a perfect hunt."

Despite his travels, Fisher said he most enjoys hunting in Western Pennsylvania.

"I like to hunt where I know the land," he said. "I like to know where the big trees are, where the turkeys feed and roost. I like to put that all together and figure out where they'll be."

Fisher doesn't claim to be a turkey calling expert.

"The reason I've been successful is that I am persistent and I pay attention," he explained. "A lot of guys hunt by the 'run-and-gun' theory. If they don't hear a gobble they hurry up and drive somewhere else. But just because it's quiet doesn't mean those turkeys have left the country. I just wait them out. It's more important to know their habits than to call a lot."