Abstract: The poor permeability of high gas and low permeability coal seams and the difficulty with gas drainage seriously affect and restrict the mining replacement and safe and efficient production of the mine. It is difficult to solve the problem of outburst elimination through the conventional drainage method, while the pulse water jet technology can significantly improve the permeability of the coal body and improve the gas drainage capacity of borehole. Therefore, based on the experimental platform for water jet impact cracking, the influence of pulsed water jet pressure P and impact target distance S on the fracture characteristics of impacted coal is studied via the single-factor physical test method, the rock-breaking mechanism of pulsed water jet is analyzed, and the effects of pulsed water jet technology on coal gas concentration, pressure, permeability enhancement and drainage are verified through engineering experiments. According to the results, when the nozzle diameter D=2.0 mm and the impact target distance S=30 mm, with the impact water pressure P increasing from 5 MPa to 40 MPa, the time for strain and strain mutation of the sample gradually decreases, the cumulative amount of strain gradually decreases, the impact fracture depth h gradually decreases from 75 mm to 37 mm, and the impact pit diameter d first increases and then decreases; when the impact water pressure of the pulse water jet is 5−15 MPa, the cracks of the coal body propagate rapidly in the initial response and stable failure stages; when the impact water pressure of the pulse water jet is 15−40 MPa, the crack propagation of the coal body is relatively slow in the initial response stage, the fracture time of the sample is shortened, and the crack propagation of the coal body is accelerated after the fracture mutation; when the coal and rock mass is fractured by pulsed water jet under different pressures, the main longitudinal cracks play a dominant role, and the secondary cracks are relatively developed. With the increase of impact water pressure, the main cracks change from horizontal (0°) and vertical (90°) directions to the inclined (45°) direction. When the nozzle diameter D=2.0 mm and the impact water pressure P=20 MPa, with the target distance S of pulsed water jet increasing from 30 mm to 120 mm, the strain in the initial response stage of the sample decreases, the time in the stable failure stage increases, and the variation rate of strain decreases. The process of rock breaking by water jet impact can be divided into four stages: I surface impact stage, II impact pit initiation stage, III impact pit extension stage and IV impact retardation stage. According to the verification results through on-site tests, the concentration of gas emission from the coal body around the slotting and rock-breaking boreholes by pulsed water jet is significantly higher than that around the conventional boreholes. The gas pressure decreases by approximately 0.17 and 0.19 MPa, respectively. The average permeability coefficient of the coal body increases by 9 to 13 times, and the instantaneous mixing amount of gas extraction from the boreholes increases by 2 to 21 times. Pulsed water jet can effectively break the coal body in the boreholes. The research results can provide a certain basis for the gas control of low-permeability coal seams.