I will agree with everything said above and add a few things. For one like said it will depend on how good your dad is and how much experience he has. If he is new I wouldn't even order a bow from the net, new or used. He should go to a shop where it can be properly fitted to him and they can make sure his form is good. He doesn't have to get a new one, just one that fits and is comfortable to draw and shoot. Bows make poor gifts sight unseen. It's sort of something you have to pick out and see what "feels" good to YOU. When I went to buy my girlfriend a bow we shot several, I really liked the Rintec and Sieratec from hoyt. She ended up liking the Alpine micro more in the end, go figure? Didn't break my heart any since it was about half the money. Had it been me though I would have went home with a rintec hands down.

I'm not sure about the older tech 29's but the newer short bows are not that hard to shoot unless you have a fairly long draw length. My Mighty Might is only around 30 inches, but it has a fairly long risor with short laid back limbs. I think this makes a big difference. I think axle to axle and risor length sort of go hand in hand. I think the tech 29's had shorter risors on them though. I would assume with that ATA it would have a pretty decent brace height. Most short bows have a pretty decent brace height on them like around 8 inches or so. Not all though, I would have to see the specs for that bow.

I will repeat again what the others said above, I don't think this would be a great bow for a beginner. Will he be able to shoot it, sure he will. It just will not be very forgiving of small errors in form and release. And with the shorter ATA it may be harder to find good anchor points and peep location because of the string angle at full draw.

For a first bow I would look at something in the lines of 34-36 inches of ATA, 7-8 inches of brace height, not a lot of reflex in the grip and speeds around 290-305 fps IBO. And don't fall into the trap of shooting more draw length than you need or more poundage because you think you need the speed. I shoot 25.5-26 inches at around 55 lbs of draw weight and I can kill deer. And you don't need anywhere near that for target archery.

Paul