We have a great sheriff here in Polk county and we had a great guy for a sheriff who just retired. I have lived in Iowa all my life, grew up in a small farm town in Southwest Iowa and lived in Omaha/Council Bluffs, Red Oak, Shenandoah, Clarinda, Corning, Winterset and Des Moines. I have hunted all of my life and had a concealed carry permit for longer than I can remember, I have had no problem open carrying in the countryside or even some of the very small rural towns, however when going into larger towns or stores or restaurants, I always switch from open carry to concealed carry. I do not want to cause an incident or rile up the anti gun crowd or even make people nervous.
To me open carry is a double edge sword, I respect the people who do it, on the one hand if more people did it without incident maybe the general public would get used to it and we would see stronger laws protecting our 2nd Amendment Rights, on the other hand if the people who are afraid of guns get all excited and join the anti gun crowd we could see even tougher laws against our constitutional right the Freedom to bear Arms.
Open carry reminds me too much of walking in a minefield, you either get to your destination in one piece or you don't make it at all.