Sounds like a good hunt congrats ! As far as the beards go I don't put too much in that unless its a jake. A couple of years ago a buddy passed on a tom with a small beard because of the beard size. It just so happened that I had a couple close trail cam pics of the bird and his spurs made up for the lack of beard as they were easily 1.5 " When I showed him the pics he about cried and spend almost the rest of the season after that tom with no luck as he was sneaky old boy !