This paper reports the first experimental investigations of soft x-ray generation from Nd laser- irradiated gas puff targets. The gas puff targets were made by the pulsed injection of gas (SF6 or Kr) into a vacuum chamber. To irradiate the gas puff targets a Nd-glass laser was used, which generated 1-ns pulses of up to 15 J in energy. The gas flow was initiated by a fast solenoid valve synchronized with a laser pulse. Spatial, spectral and temporal measurements show that intense soft x-ray emission from the laser-irradiated gas puff targets is produced. Using the presented technique one can obtain a new type of a laser plasma x-ray source (LPXS), which has some advantages over LPXS with a solid target, such as reproducibility of target conditions and no sputtering by target debris produced in the laser plasma.