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There are 3 generations of Colt's starting with black powder only
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If it is indeed a Colt 1871 Army, it is an open frame cartridge gun designed for 44 Colt. These are somewhat rare, only made from 1871 to 1872. In 1873, the Single Action Army was introduced, and sales of the other model effectively stopped.
If what you have is a Colt 1873 Single Action Army Model P, then just clean it as you would any revolver, but be very careful about shooting it as you may do literally thousands of dollars of damage to it.