Ammo itself shouldn't be that scarce and I'm glad that you aren't taking that silly direction. I think most of the difficulty surrounding ammo management and making sure you have a full load of it, should come from the magazine system by how pricey or common they are on top of the ammo costs, also how expensive and rare the different ammo types are.
While every Stalker or bandit who has a NATO rifle should have a couple (probably not all full) mags of 5.56 on him and a handful of bullets for topping off, I don't think the AP rounds should be as common or cheap. It would make sense if military grade steel core AP rounds were scarce compared to standard rounds even in the Zone. This would also give pistol caliber weapons and shotguns a advantage, as their special ammo types would be a bit more common and cheaper since slugs and the special pistol rounds would be available readily outside of the Zone/black market and be smuggled in a higher quantity.
Lt.SnoWolf
Jeremy joined
Hello visitor(returning or new), Read my latest blog post and disregard most comments made before 2013. On janitor duty, Hopefully I can think of something better to add here soon. Until then, clean, clean, clean.