Front shocks and bump stops for lowered 72

[plowro8]

I just bought all new shocks for my truck, and I noticed that, when compressed my new shocks are about 10" bolt to bolt. As the truck sits with the old shocks in it, the bolts are about 10.5" apart, leaving only about half inch of play for the new shocks. In addition, there are no bump stops on the front end, so there is metal to metal clanking when I go over bumps. When I look at the area where the bump stops belong, I only have about 1" of room for new stops. I found some 3/8" stops, but do I need shorter shocks? Is there a chance the lowering was done improperly? Thanks for the feedback