While the velocities in some cases need to be adjusted the main issue here isn’t velocity, it’s drag. Or rather the way drag is being interpreted in this game. Snipers would be issued rounds tailored to have a low drag coefficient thus retaining high energy and killing potential at greater distances than common infantry rounds.
shows what I’m talking about, albeit with a modern round. Note how quickly the velocity and energy of the lighter round falls off compared to the heavier rounds.
Battlefield does assume the bolt action rifles are using a heavier, more damaging round than their MMG, LMG, and SAR counterparts as is obvious due to the damage models. They also have over-modeled drag so that the velocity and bullet drop at 250m in game is roughly equivalent to the same at 500m in the real world. That’s all fine. The problem we have though, is that the drag coefficient is being universally applied to all weapons (with two exceptions) which leads to a case where weapons like the Gewehr 43 and the Bren are getting the velocity benefits of using a lighter round without the associated drawbacks compared to the bolt actions which despite doing more damage are still subject to the same drag coefficient and consequently handicapped at range where velocity and bullet drop become hilariously exaggerated.
The only two exceptions to this are the Krag and the Kar98 with their ‘low-drag’ rounds. Even these are missing ~10% of their velocity and the Krag appears to have forgotten it is allowed to do damage. I can understand low-drag rounds being a specialization for scoped weapons as opposed to running them iron sighted as “Infantry” rifles, or maybe a class bonus for the “Sniper” spec, but limiting it to only two weapons is a little silly. Would be nice to see the bolt actions get a better drag coefficient by default to help set them apart from the SARs. Even without velocity buffs this should make things play a little nicer at range.