  We demonstrate laser-driven Helium ion acceleration with cut-off energies
above 25 MeV and peaked ion number above $10^8$ /MeV for 22(2) MeV projectiles
from near-critical density gas jet targets. We employed shock gas jet nozzles
at the high-repetition-rate (HRR) VEGA-2 laser system with 3 J in pulses of 30
fs focused down to intensities in the range between $9\times10^{19}$ W/cm$^2$
and $1.2\times10^{20}$ W/cm$^2$. We demonstrate acceleration spectra with minor
shot-to-shot changes for small variations in the target gas density profile.
Difference in gas profiles arise due to nozzles being exposed to a experimental
environment, partially ablating and melting.
