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Player's Manual, pg. 45, Sidebar: "Don't Roll Too Often" - I note that it is next to the column section beginning, "Pushing Your Roll".

I'm not widely experienced in YZE gameplay but this speaks to me to, outside combat of course, only use the dice for milestones at the table and for more narrative resolution rather than for discrete actions. To put it in concrete terms, for a scene where a PC is attempting to intimidate an NPC, I'd probably role-play most of the scene and then roll to determine overall success at the end (with the player's explicit direction that "I want to intimidate this guy").

What's the board's take on your general timing on breaking out dice?

An example: Player says they want to shoot the lock off a door. I would just say, "OK, you shot the lock off. Reduce your ammo by 1". There's absolutely no point in asking for a ranged combat roll.

Agreed. Unless it's something that would be tricky or difficult for the character, or performed under stress or unusual circumstance, I generally wouldn't require a roll.

Appreciate it @baldrick0712 and @grimmshade.

So, how far down the narrative (and, yes, I know that term is freighted - I mean "narrative" in the sense of role-play resolved by 1-2 rolls vs. 7-8) channel would you say the system goes, e.g. broad scene resolution vs. discrete action resolution?

I recognize there's not an ideal number of rolls and circumstances dictate. Not trying to draw a heavy distinction between simulation vs. narrative, just wondering how broadly/narrowly to zoom-out/in on action resolution without harming gameplay with too many Push rolls and/or PCs racking up damage/stress.

Appreciate it @baldrick0712 and @grimmshade.

So, how far down the narrative (and, yes, I know that term is freighted - I mean "narrative" in the sense of role-play resolved by 1-2 rolls vs. 7-8) channel would you say the system goes, e.g. broad scene resolution vs. discrete action resolution?

I recognize there's not an ideal number of rolls and circumstances dictate. Not trying to draw a heavy distinction between simulation vs. narrative, just wondering how broadly/narrowly to zoom-out/in on action resolution without harming gameplay with too many Push rolls and/or PCs racking up damage/stress.

The system as written is heavier than most in terms of dice rolling. There are lots of sub-systems like fishing, hunting, scrounging, scavenging, gear maintenance and repair etc. I can see some players getting fed up being asked to make a TECH (INT) roll to clean their MG after the passage of a week of game time or suffer a drop in Reliability ("Gun Care", p91, Players Manual). If you want to go with a more narrative approach you could probably waive some of these sub-system rolls. For example, it could be assumed that the highest TECH (INT) character in the group is keeping an eye on everyone's kit and making sure they clean it regularly "off stage" as it were.

In times of stress (most "game time"), I make rolls whenever the PC's do anything out of the ordinary or ordinary but under pressure. I balance this by making heavy use of the stunt rules. If someone rolls extra success they may not need to roll for that task again, or may get extra dice (or give extra dice to a buddy).
You need people making rolls in stress situations to make good use of the stress/panic rules. However even then I only make one roll per important situation. Sneaking past a guard, locking down a door, or driving away from an explosion would all be one roll. Also, even in stress situations I'd not have a roll for a basic situation, like driving from one location to another.
That's a long way of saying I don't have a specific number of rolls.

The system as written is heavier than most in terms of dice rolling. There are lots of sub-systems like fishing, hunting, scrounging, scavenging, gear maintenance and repair etc. I can see some players getting fed up being asked to make a TECH (INT) roll to clean their MG after the passage of a week of game time or suffer a drop in Reliability ("Gun Care", p91, Players Manual). If you want to go with a more narrative approach you could probably waive some of these sub-system rolls. For example, it could be assumed that the highest TECH (INT) character in the group is keeping an eye on everyone's kit and making sure they clean it regularly "off stage" as it were.

This thought process was key to my casual re-interpretation of travel and general activities. The core rules are useful at times, but I found all the rolling to be burdensome, interrupt narrative flow, and produce illogical seeming results so often that I mostly abandoned it in favor of common sense. What you describe was exactly one such case... "Your character has military training and small arms skill, they know they need to (and how to) clean their weapon -- so unless you're on the run constantly or otherwise unable to stop, I just assume you take 10 minutes to do that as part of any normal shift of work."

Likewise I assumed any character with combat experience would automatically reload their weapon after any combat. Any character with medical experience would automatically go around and clean wounds, given any amount of time to do it. The driver would refill the fuel tanks if possible to do so. No rolls required for any of these actions unless circumstances were bad enough to cause complications.

This helped cut down on results that draw long stares from players, helped emphasize the idea that the characters are competent survivors, eliminated tiresome redundant busywork, and created some nice distinction between characters.

Related to this, I find that my players almost always push their rolls if they haven't rolled a 1 on their initial dice roll. Is that other GM's experience of how players behave?

Related to this, I find that my players almost always push their rolls if they haven't rolled a 1 on their initial dice roll. Is that other GM's experience of how players behave?

Missing on a Ranged Combat roll (no successes on base dice) when lots of ammo dice rolled a 6 is pretty much an automatic push for me.

Related to this, I find that my players almost always push their rolls if they haven't rolled a 1 on their initial dice roll. Is that other GM's experience of how players behave?

Yes, for many players, but that's fine. And the occasional roll where they're taking 2 or more damage/stress out of nowhere keep things lively!