I am sure it can but think of it like this....
Ballistic coefficient is horrible. Down range energy is going to suffer. If you are just making it go faster inside a cartridge's max point blank range what did you achieve.... Nothing.
You can get good killing power out over 400 yards on a Whitetail with a 140 gr. at around 3000 fps with a point blank range of 300 yards with minimal recoil. To me that is a sweet spot for the .280 as a deer cartridge.
BC is .350 on the little 120 Barnes bullets which isn't bad at all. Start em at 3200 fps with a 200 yard zero and at 500 yards they're only 7 minutes low and still have over 1000 fbs of energy. I shoot em in my 280 Ackley. I'd pick something different for an elk hunt but the 120's are bad news on a whitetail.
A 140 started at 2950 or so would have just a touch more energy at 500 but it would also be just a little over a minute lower.
Couldn't go wrong with either it would just be a matter of which one your rifle liked best.
