I never purchased a Howa Lightning from Whittaker's but I did buy one in 22-250 from Bud's a year or two ago. The stock is pretty much a generic plastic stock. I believe they're still made by Hogue, but not rubberized. It does have metal sleeves molded in or "pillars" if you will so you can torque everything down and not be distorting plastic. The Vanguard S2 stock is definitely more rigid.
I never actually shot my Lightning with the standard stock on it. I have a Vanguard SUB-MOA that I upgraded the standard stock to a Medalist, so I put the SUB-MOA stock on the Howa.
