As of November 5th, 2017, the Standschütze Hellriegel 1915 in Battlefield 1 is responsible for over half of the SMG kills in game. The weapons higher than average fire rate, low recoil, and high magazine size make it objectively one of, if not the best weapons in Battlefield 1.

I propose an alteration to the Standschütze Hellriegel 1915 Factory and Defensive variants, which, in addition to making them more balanced, will make them more historically accurate.

For the Factory variant, the change is simple. Instead of the current 60 round drum magazines, the weapon could take 25 round stick magazines, similiar to the Ribeyrolles 1918 Factory currently in game. This would retain the weapons higher than average time to kill, and it's easy to control recoil pattern. In exchange, the weapon could recover from spread even faster, because of the lowered weight.

As to the Defensive variant, the drum magazine capacity could be increased to 160 rounds from it's current 120. In exchange, the hipfire could be drastically less effective, as well as increased recoil while not using the bipod, similiar to the Parabellum MG.14/17 Low Weight currently in game. 

I believe these alterations would make the Standschütze Hellriegel 1915 Factory and Defensive variants more balanced, historically accurate, and more suited to their specific roles. Increased usage stats for the other submachine guns in Battlefield 1 would also be likely.