North Carolina is, indeed, an open carry state, but I wouldn't try it in public.
If you need to go into the woods you can open cary, or on your own, but I wouldn't recommend it in a city.
Several years ago a fellow carried a revolver openly in the City of Charlotte, and even though it's completely legal, and even though police officers carry openly all day long every day, he must have been wearing a suit or in some way stood out in the crowd.
The man was caused a near panic, was arrested and hauled off to jail, and was probably spent a lot of his personal savings on a lawyer only to be severly chastised by a judge. The incident made the news big time.
people are so stupid sometimes. He probably lost his gun or spent a small fortune getting it back.
The legal system in this country is 99% the root of the problem. the other 1% is just human nature.
The law and our freedoms have been allowed at the pleasure of the sitting government for a long time.
something being legal or not has very little to do with whether you may be allowed to do that or not.