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After devoting most of my time over the last few months trying to learn to hit my irons(still a long way to go) i decided to spend some time today trying to hit a wood and hybrid.
Eventually i was making some decent contact although at first a good number of balls kept going way right. Problem is when i tried to hit without a tee i couldn't even come close to making decent contact .
Where i live all the ranges have mats but i don't know if that means anything(actually the place today had new mats so they weren't too bad).
I am inclined to continue practicing off the tee and when i get somewhat consistent will try hitting without the tee. Is this common for a beginner?
I read all the time that people replace irons for hybrids. I've never tried to hit an iron lower than 5 but so far it seems easier for me to hit an iron(keeping in mind all my practice so far has been off mats except when i play par 3 and use a 9 iron and pw)

Yes, you should continue to hit off tee with long irons and hybrid and fairway woods.
Try to lower the tee gradually, Go buy a rubber tee so you could trim the height from 3/4 to 1/2 to 1/4 height over the mats.
The mats actually is more forgiving than the turf, because should you come down slightly behind the ball ( too quick on the release ), the mat would bounce the sole forward and produce a decent result. Should this happened on the turf, you'll be digging down into the dirt and produce a huge divot. that's why many of us dislike to use the mat to practice irons.

I am relatively new and it is a struggle but....irons require you to trap the ball and hit down upon it.

The fairway woods and long irons require a sweeping motion. The key is swinging within yourself and maintaining your spine angle to make consistent contact.

A hybrid is more forgiving than its iron equivalent given the lower center of gravity.

Once you make consistent contact your next question will be:

Why do I hit Club X,Y, and Z the same distance?

There are different schools of the thinking of how you hit fairway woods, some believe a sweeping over the grass with very little if any divot taken , some believe to take a shallow divot and some believe trapping the ball and take a thin long divot. It really depending on the angle of your swing path at the bottom of your swing arc and the condition of the lie and the type of turf for the shot.
There is no one cure for all, any experienced golfer will tell you the execution of certain shot may not be the same each time and might need a different club to reach the same trajectory and result under different condition.
If you hit different club the same distance, the most common reason is you do not have enough club head speed for the longer club to do what it supposed to do. Either find help to improve your swing to produce better contact on the golf balls and relieve the potential swing speed you already have by proper techniques, and/or find a reputable club fitter to get the right equipment for you, sometimes too stiff a shaft will rob you of long club distance.