Hey guys I have a 01 with 4700 miles on it this is the first bike I have tried to work on myself. As we all know the savage has a rear drum brake  I'd like to know with out taking the  wheel off the bike is there anyway to check to tell if you need new pads.

I really don't want to take the wheel off because I don't have a stand and it's a giant pain in the behind.  

The marks on the drum cover are read using the marks on the lever.  It does not indicate wear out (no one has ever worn out the back brake shoes yet) but it tells you when to loosen the spline nut and move the lever around to get the lever motion & angle back to right again.

You can check the shoes visually when changing out a rear tire (you do that every few years) but like I said, wear out simply doesn't happen to the rear brake shoes.