the new season was different but turned out well for me. the season used to run dec 27-30 and this year ran jan 9-12. i liked the fact that the deer had a reasonable amount of time to cool off after the regular week of gun season and the extra weekend. last year the deer were all still a little spooky. as far as more shed bucks well i have two thoughts on this yes i can see that being a slim possibility but last year my best friend shot a shed buck during the regular week. this year i harvested a 9 point durling this pushed back primitive season and his horns were firmly attached so i dont know if that is really a big problem. the other thought on this is if your trophy hunting you should be doing so during our long archery season i understand being picky but if you wait until the last firearms season your options are going to be slightly less on bucks after 3 months of bows and 9 days of shotgun gang drives. if you want to harvest a buck with the muzzleloader try using it throughout the entire firearms season.