Model 55 Winchester

I recently purchased a model 55 Winchester 32 special. My other 55's have a metal butt plate but this one has a padded butt stock. Reading Berts article in the Collectors Magazine I see the pad was a option on a shoot gun butt stock. They all look like shot gun but stocks to me. It is not a factory pad it is a Western Field, of course in horrible shape. What I need to know is if the gun was ordered with a butt pad did they cut the butt stock down to where it would be the same length as a butt stock with a metal butt plate. This is the case with this one. The stock with the pad is a little over a inch short of the one with the metal pad.