I have personal experience with this issue as I carried openly while I was waiting for my CPL and I did not have a vehicle of my own so had to travel by public transit. My suggestion, get your CPL and carry it with you. Till then, do what you have to in order to be in compliance with the law. If anybody has a problem with it, tell them to bugger off. The only reason you will ever have a problem is if you are like I was and talk to police or if you are blatant about unloading. I can easily remove the mag from my firearm without anybody even knowing, and I use to carry in an underarm holster. Take some time and practice quickly and discretly removing the mag and putting it in your pocket or have an empty mag pouch on your belt. If done right, it will only look like you are adjusting your shirt or your belt (as if you were pulling up your pants or tugging your shirt down so that your firearm is not concealed). Once you have your CPL "in hand", you can forget about having to "unload" and carry on and forget the idiots (the general public) around you. As the old saying goes, "you can't please all of the people all of the time". If somebody has a problem with you doing what is lawful, tell them to take it up with their legislators. Till then, they can leave you the hell alone.
My biggest problem when I first started carrying was that despite the fact that I knew the law and had studied it extensively, I had an overwhelming desire to ask questions of LEOs to make sure I was doing things correctly. The problem is (and I'm sure you can find many topics on these forums) that LEOs either don't know the law or don't care about the law and want to interject their own personal opinions about the issue. So, follow the letter of the law and keep your mouth shut.