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The rules say the following about ammo:

The game does not have a granular system for tracking ammunition. If you have a gun, you probably have some ammo. But running out of ammo and going on runs to find more is an important part of the game’s world, so there are two thematically resonant ways that ammo scarcity can happen.

First, the GM could introduce it as a Challenge, for example by setting a scene where an NPC, who has counted the bullets in your storage, warns you that you are about to run out. Another way is as a result of messing up on a skill roll, for example when you roll for Ranged Combat.

How do GMs interpret the "messing up on a skill roll" suggestion above? Simply failing on the skill check is too frequent so do GMs rule that running out of ammo is when you roll a 1? Or as certain firearms have bonus dice associated with them is it only when you roll a certain number of 1s?

Or do some GMs track ammo in a granular fashion (as is done in Twilight 2000) as that builds suspense for the players as they start to run out?

Thanks for any input.

Or do GMs just rule that ammo runs out if you roll a 1 on a Stress dice?

My thought is that because the statement includes “messing up” it is based on the rolling of a 1 on a stress die.

Messing up is part of the rules for Stress, page 49-50.
When this happens in a fight the table on page 64 can be used.

As with all rules in this game, the fiction needs to be consulted, and the group and the GM need to think (and somtimes discuss). This is how this game is meant to be played, as a collaboration where the rules are abstract, and the result of the rules becomes concrete and specific through the fiction. What I mean is that it needs to make sense. If the PCs recently found a car filled with ammo, messing up would probably not mean that they run out of ammo. Then the GM needs to let messing up have another consequense.

The group as a whole could also run low on ammo as a Problem the GM introduces, perhaps by saying, "by the way you are soon about to run out of ammo", or something like that. Then a part of the game/ the fiction will be about that and how the PCs (try to) solve it. And as always, the fiction needs to be consulted and interpreted. It should make sense that the GM chooses this particular problem.

Challenge, not Problem, sorry... Page 104.

Thanks for the explanation. I need to discuss that approach with my players.